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FRIEDRICH WILHELM KRUMMACHER 


AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER. 


TRANSLATED BY 

REV. M. G. EASTON, A.M. 


WITH A PREFACE BY 

REV. PROFESSOR CAIRNS, D.D. 

OF BERWICK. 



NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 
No. 530 BROADWAY. 

MDCCCLXIX. 





PREFACE BY DR CAIRNS OF BERWICK. 


The following Autobiography of Dr Krummaeher needs no 
introduction or recommendation from any quarter. It has all 
the best qualities of its Author’s well-known style, and some 
which are less prominent in his other writings ; and it may be 
confidently expected that it will secure in an English dress the 
popularity which it has at once achieved in Germany. It may 
be permitted, however, to one who has been associated in various 
ways with the lamented Author, to call attention to some of the 
interesting features of the posthumous work here presented, and 
thus to express something of the reverence with which the wide 
circle of English-speaking Christians must ever cherish his 
name. 

Among the most attractive parts of this volume are the early 
recollections, especially of the Author’s father, F. A. Krum- 
macher, the author of the “ Parables,” the picture of whose 
successive charges, and most of all of his rural ministry in 
Westphalia, opens up the fine home influences under which his 
son grew up to still greater eminence and usefulness. The 
sketches of university life in Halle and Jena which follow, 
would not be easy to match in similar literature. The medal- 
lions of the professors, as of Wegscheider and Gesenius, Knapp 
and Fries, have the perfect individuality which only genius can 
give to the portrait; and the whole description suggests the 
immense and blessed revolution which the student-life of 
Germany — so far as Christian orthodoxy is concerned — has 
since undergone. Leaving behind the characteristic notice of 
the Author’s early ministry in Frankfurt, the narrative lingers 
long on his successive labours on the Khine, in Kuhrort, Bar- 
men, and Elberfeld. This is probably the best and liveliest 
description anywhere to be found of Ehenish Christianity. It 


2 


PREFACE BY DR CAIRNS OF BERWICK. 


may be expected to be especially interesting to British and 
American Christians, because the type of Christianity exhi- 
bited more nearly resembles their own, and also because in 
connection with these scenes the Author’s name first became a 
household word in their several Churches. It may be ques- 
tioned, however, if the power is not greater which paints the 
struggles and difficulties of the Author’s opening ministry in 
Berlin, and which affords the deepest glimpses into the moral 
state of the Prussian capital, and the working of the Gospel 
under new and trying conditions upon its various circles. The 
pictures of the leaders of different schools in the United Church 
of Prussia are as clear in outline as they are tender in colouring ; 
and the Author’s generous feeling has breathed over the features 
of Stahl and Hengstenberg, much as he differed from them, 
the same impartial warmth which lights up the incomparable 
sketch of Neander. It is needless to say that King Frederick 
William iv. receives full justice in this memorial volume. 

It is to be regretted that the Autobiography breaks off at the 
year 1848, before our Author’s growing connection with the 
Christians of other lands had made him a central figure in the 
Evangelical Alliance, and even before the German Kirchentag 
had begun its career. Still the extracts from his correspondence 
which his executors have appended supply some compensation, 
and give some conception of his Potsdam ministry; and the dis- 
course with which he opened the Alliance meeting at Berlin in 
1857 has been given entire — a discourse of which, eloquent and 
powerful as it reads, no record can preserve the overwhelming 
impression. 

It is hoped that a volume so various in matter, and so graphic 
in style, and bearing so deeply the stamp of the Author’s piety 
and Christian patriotism, as well as of his fire and genius, may 
deepen the interest of a large circle of readers in German 
Christianity, and may contribute to that growth of Christian 
sympathy whereby the whole living Church “makes increase of 
the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” 

JOHN CAIRNS. 


August 13 , 1869 . 


PREFACE 


BY THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE AUTHOR’S FAMILY. 


Our beloved father, Dr Friedrich Wilhelm Krum- 
macher, the Royal Court-preacher, was born on the 28th 
January 1796, and calmly departed this life, in the 
peace of God, on the 10th December 1868. Among his 
Remains we have, to our no little surprise and joy, 
found the following Autobiography, which we now give 
to the public. He had never spoken to us of this work. 
Alas! it reaches only to the year 1848; but still it 
embraces a great and important part of his life, and the 
blank of the last twenty years we have endeavoured to 
fill up with communications, in which he also, for the 
most part, speaks for himself. May the blessing of 
the Lord, which has rested in so rich a measure on the 
words of the living , also accompany the voice of the 
dead in all houses into which this Autobiography may 
be received ! 


Potsdam and Halberstadt, 
March 1869. 




CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction, ....... 7 

CHAPTER I. 

Childhood, ....... 9 

CHAPTER II. 

The Years of Boyhood, ...... 18 

CHAPTER III. 

The Period of Youth, ...... 34 

CHAPTER IY. 

The University— Halle, ..... 48 

CHAPTER Y. 

The University— Jena, ...... 64 

CHAPTER YI. 

Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, ..... 81 

CHAPTER YII. 

Ruhrort, ........ 108 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Barmen, ........ 124 

CHAPTER IX. 

Elberfeld, . . . . . . .152 

CHAPTER X. 

Berlin, ........ 225 

CHAPTER XI. 

Supplement — Berlin and Potsdam, . . . .266 

CHAPTER XII. 

Appendix — P oem composed on the occasion of leaving the 

University of Jena, . . . • . . 330 

Sermon preached on New-Year’s Day 1868, . . . 331 

Last Sermon, preached 15th November 1868, . . 339 




INTRODUCTION. 


Whoever has entered into the venerable rank of the 
men of sixty years of age, and looks hack on the two 
generations over which his life has extended, may well 
regard himself as having now reached the last stage 
of his journey. He will hardly commence any new en- 
terprise, or enter on any fresh undertaking. Living 
only on that it has already gained, the soul will scarcely 
reckon on any farther real increase of its spiritual 
capital. It will rather live in the memories of the past, 
than dream away the brief time now remaining in 
hopes for which at least here, on this side , there is no 
longer any anchor-ground. Well is it for him who is 
able, with the peace of old Simeon — a peace altogether 
different from that which the world knows, and which 
it seeks to build on the deceitful foundation of a con- 
sciousness of personal merit — to look forward into the 
future, as well as back into the past ! Perhaps this 
retrospect will not fill his soul only with songs of joy, 
but will also hold him fast at many places which he 
will be constrained anew to water with the hot tears of 
repentance. But he will always raise himself up and 
take courage again, and feel his just sorrow give place 
to equally well founded joy over the everlasting truth, 
that “ if our heart condemn us, God is greater than 
our heart, and knoweth all things.” 


































s 
















CHAPTER I. 


CHILDHOOD. 

, * * 

H^HE first seven years of our childhood usually hover 
before us in our remembrances of them bathed in 
the golden radiance of a lost paradise. They are like 
the pre-historic period in the life of nations, which lies 
in the remote cloudy distance, in which it is difficult to 
distinguish legend from fact, fable from truth. Thus 
I am conscious — and, as I think, not from the hearsay 
of others — that, while yet an infant in the cradle, I was 
one day bathed in the sunshine of the joy-beaming 
countenance of my father. And how distinctly do I 
even this day see myself, when scarcely one year old, 
during a violent storm, which shook in the most 
dangerous manner the old tower at the foot of which 
my father s house stood, carried in the arms of a faith- 
ful female friend of our family across the open market- 
place into her own more secure dwelling ; and I believe 
that the relation in later years of what then happened 
was due to this my remembrance of it. There yet 
stand, in all the vivid distinctness of pictures before my 
eyes (for I was born under the tricolor of the French 
Republic, and the stirring music of the Marseillaise, 
which breathes, in a way no other secular song does, the 
most glowing fanaticism of freedom), as I beheld them, 
in the third year of my life, the lofty Tree of Freedom 
A 


10 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


in the midst of the market-place, around which there 
danced in a ring a hand of men bellowing out the 
Carmagnole, and the tents of the charlatan French 
dentists, who, standing on an elevated tribune, recom- 
mended to the public, in broken German, and with a 
loud voice, their tinctures and secret remedies against 
all possible evils, while, at the same time, for the pur- 
pose of enticing a crowd around them, they caused a 
monkey which they carried with them to perform its 
tricks, and a harlequin to make exciting sport. And 
I could yet almost paint the scene of the school at the 
watch-tower, to which I was sent as a half-day pupil 
before the end of my third year, certainly not accord- 
ing to my own inclination ; and I look back in thought 
to the happy moments in which, as often happened in 
the summer time, the kindly old schoolmistress sur- 
prised us with little branches of purple-red currants out 
of her garden. The feelings with which I was wont then 
to receive my little branch even now renew themselves 
within me. They were feelings not so much of joy 
over the little purple grapes which smiled upon us, as 
of a longing after the green free nature from which they 
appeared to bring a salutation to us little prisoners. 

I was born at Mors, on the Rhine, which was formerly 
the capital of the sovereign principality of the same 
name. Years passed by before I learned to share my 
pride in it with Gerhard Tersteegen, who was born there 
a full century before me. Since my tenth year scarcely 
has a single day passed in which some note of his pil- 
grim-song, “ Kommt Kinder, lasst uns gehen” (Come 
children, let us go), does not echo in my heart. 

The times in which I first opened my eyes on the 
light of this world were stormy and troublous. On 
the left bank of the Rhine there had already been 


CHILDHOOD. 


11 


established the republic of Robespierre, Danton, and 
Hebert, all besmeared with the blood of king and 
citizens. The inhabitants also of the hereditary pos- 
sessions of the Great Elector, till then so happy, saw 
with stifling indignation the Prussian eagle supplanted 
by the Gallican. In what an overflowing measure, too, 
had the country to taste, under the orders daily issued — 
4 4 voitures, chevaux d’ordonnance, pioniers, execution 
militaire, etc/’ — all the miseries of war and of foreign 
domination ! Yet it appears that, in the house of the 
director of the school for training teachers, which office 
was held by my father, who was devotedly attached to 
the royal house of Brandenburg, neither courage nor 
good humour ever altogether disappeared. Amid all 
the tumult of the world around him, my father, 
Friedrich Adolf, found quietness and humour enough 
to establish a diary in the name of his little first-born 
son, in which he carefully recorded everything, however 
insignificant it might be, that appertained to the life 
of his child ; but especially notices of his observable 
progress in bodily and mental growth, together with 
earnest prayers to God on his behalf, are strikingly 
prominent in its pages. When the little boy first 
laughed to his parents ; how he attentively followed 
with his eyes a little bird flying about in the room, 
and thereby proved his strength of vision ; and par- 
ticularly how he commenced to aim at expressing the 
difficult words mamma and papa — all these incidents 
are recorded in the diary. The book also records how the 
child was attacked by the fearful disease of small-pox. 
And the manner in which it bears testimony to their 
anxieties during that period, makes it obvious that 
their care for the life of the beloved infant pressed into 
the back-ground every other care in the hearts of the 


12 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


parents, and that their joy at the first sure symptoms 
of incipient recovery was great enough to make the 
happy pair then altogether forget for a while all the 
political and social miseries under which millions were 
at that time sighing. 

My father also at that time making his escape into 
the world of the ideal from the furies of war which 
were let loose upon the land, wrote, among other poems 
breathing only peace and hope, his animated “ Hymnus 
an die Liebe” (Hymn to Love). At a later period of 
his life he was wont frequently to speak of the pleasant 
hours he had now and then spent in those stormy days, 
(when not seldom the tumultuous sound of the drums of 
the French regiments passing through the streets was 
heard), under the leafy shade of a plane tree in his little 
garden, situated beside the ruins of the old baronial 
castle, in the midst of a circle of trusty neighbours and 
dear friends ; and of the witty and refreshing conversa- 
tions there enjoyed, and the cheerful and solemn toasts 
“ for better times,” and for a “ restitutio in integrum,” 
with which they strengthened the courage of one 
another, and drove away their anxious cares. To this 
circle belonged, among others, Ross, the pastor of Bud- 
berg, who was afterwards bishop ; Essler, the worthy 
pastor of Capelin, who was generally, but erroneously, 
taken for a brother of the celebrated actor of the same 
name (though spelt a little differently — Esslair) ; and 
Pastor Spiess, and Professor Moller, my father’s much- 
loved brother-in-law, of Duisburg — excellent young 
men, of genial nature, and of noblest aims, besides 
being zealous patriots, who never doubted the restora- 
tion of their Prussian Fatherland, whose triumphs at 
length they celebrated together. 

After seven years of manifold and richly-blessed 


CHILDHOOD. 


13 


activity at Mors, my father was surprised by the recep- 
tion of a call to the Professorship of Theology and 
Eloquence at the University of Duisburg . 1 After long 
hesitation he at length responded to it, while in the 
most modest estimate of himself he despaired of his 
ability to succeed the excellent man, Professor Dr Berg, 
whose place he was to occupy, and who was then widely 
famed both for his learning and his piety. I was four 
years old when we, now five in all — for meanwhile a 
little brother and sister had been given to me — crossed 
the Rhine. That this was not done on the part of my 
parents, to whom that little town of Mors had become 
gradually more endeared, without many tears being 
shed at their departure, I know only from tradition. 
The many new objects of contemplation which during 
this little journey no doubt claimed the attention of 
the little boy, if not in mountain and valley, yet in forest 
and river, villages and farm-yards, flocks of cattle, and 
ships, left no room in the circle of my vision for the 
convoy of friends who accompanied us from Mors, and 
the joyful welcome we received on reaching our new 
dwelling. 

My childhood-life at Duisburg lies, however, in some- 
what clearer light before me. In the back-ground of 
my remembrances I see walking before me, partly veiled 
in shadows, it is true, and at best only as remarkable 
and singular personages, the colleagues and domestic 
friends of my father. Among these I see the philo- 
sopher Plessing, the noble transcendental dreamer, 
Goethe’s friend and companion on his journey to the 
Hartz mountains, who, knocking at every door between 
heaven and earth, always sought but never found that 
which was enduring, except the love and affection of 
1 Founded 1655 ; abolished 1806. 


14 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


all who had learned to know this simple, childlike, 
fantastic and most singular man. I see also the old 
Professor Orientalium Grimm, whom his friends were 
wont jocularly to style the “ Rabbi Rambach,” appear 
again vividly before me. This honest and certainly 
learned rationalist was fairly driven out of his scientific 
saddle and overcome by the young knight Menken, who 
in his first work, “Die Damonologie” (Demonology), con- 
clusively proved that the devil was indeed something 
more than a myth. His head appears to me in every bust 
of Socrates which I see. I remember also Gunther, who 
was then widely famed as a physician, being honoured 
in his profession with a degree of public confidence 
which, in its intensity, almost amounted to a veneration 
equal to that with which he was looked up to as a saint ; 
and Spiess and Moller, whose images, it is true, rise 
up before me more distinctly in the recollections of later 
times, but who appeared to me, then entering on boyhood, 
to be men who needed only to show their countenances, 
and open their lips overflowing with wit and humour, 
to diffuse all around them the brightest sunshine of 
joy and gladness. Among my fathers trusted friends, 
by whom he was encircled in those days, a conspicuous 
place is to be assigned to my ever-youthful uncle Moller. 
He had enjoyed endearing fellowship with Klopstock, 
Claudius, Gleim, and many other men of the first and 
second rank of greatness in the literary world in the era 
preceding that of Goethe, and whom he kept in warm 
and loving remembrance till the end of his days. It 
was a pleasure for us not only to listen to him, but also 
to look upon him, when, as often happened during his 
later years, he recited aloud from memory, with a 
pleasing and animated countenance, as he walked up 
and down in the room, whole cantos of the “ Messiah,” 


CHILDHOOD. 


15 


and one ode of Klopstock’s after another, particularly 
that of the “ Friihe Graber” (Early Graves) ; while it 
delighted my father to interweave and season his table- 
talk with quotations from the Greek and Latin classics, 
always aptly made, as well as with memorable passages 
from Shakespeare and the English Humourists, and 
above all from the “ Wandsbeck Messenger/' and from 
the poetical works of Goethe. Of the oppression of those 
sorrowful times I think there was scarcely anything 
known in the circle in which the years of my childhood 
were spent. It was a principle with my parents, in the 
education of their children, always to wear a cheerful 
countenance before them. 

In Duisburg I experienced the first foretaste of the 
realities of life. When a boy, only six years of age, I 
had to exchange the sports of childhood for the slate 
and the primer, the sweet freedom of early boyhood for 
the heavy yoke of the school. In three years I outgrew 
the elementary school, and then found myself, when 
nine years old, trembling in the presence of Nonne, the 
director of the Gymnasium, a man of a venerable and 
imposing aspect, who, after examining me with all the 
official solemnity of his position, admitted me, with an 
encouraging and good-natured “Now, that will do very 
well," into the number of the scholars of the Quarta 
division of the institution, which was at that time by 
no means in a very prosperous condition, as it contained 
only four classes. 

My parents early taught their children to ask a 
blessing at table, and to offer morning and evening 
prayer ; yet I cannot say that they bestowed upon 
us a specially Christian upbringing. This was not 
because they too were caught in the snare of the then 
prevailing French Illuminism. Frequently, indeed, 


16 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


were we children witnesses of their heart-felt gratitude, 
when events of a joyful nature occurred, expressed 
involuntarily and amid many tears in thanksgiving and 
praise to the merciful God ; yet the pious spirit which 
then animated them appears to have been more that 
of natural than of revealed religion. While they also 
bowed themselves with the deepest reverence at the 
name of Jesus Christ, yet this worship was rendered 
less to the God-man, Mediator, and Redeemer, than 
to the Ideal of perfect moral excellence and of perfect 
humanity, which they saw realised in Him. But still, 
even already during this period of their vague and 
undefined religiousness, the whole splendour of the life 
of evangelical faith, rich in promise, began as if from a 
distance to break in morning-dawn upon their souls. 
We have heard them at a later period of their lives 
acknowledge that the religious family-traditions of both 
of them contributed to this result. 

The house of my paternal great-grandfather, Adolph 
Heinrich Krummacher, captain of the ducal castle of 
Tecklenburg, was well known in all the surrounding 
region as a “ tabernacle of God with the children of 
men/’ and for many it was a blessed place of rich 
edification. And of my father's mother, whose image, 
as long as he lived, always appeared in his eyes as that 
of a saint commanding veneration, the excellent rector 
Hasenkamp thus bears testimony in a letter to Lavater : 
“ Like a radiant star she lighted up the domestic firma- 
ment, and, living in the full sunlight of revealed truth, 
she exhibited in her whole deportment the splendour of 
a peaceful, childlike Christian spirit." To my father 
himself he also said on one occasion, “ If it were lawful 
for me to bow the knee of homage before any human 
being, then I would do it before your mother." My 


CHILDHOOD. 


17 


father’s father also, the court-fiscal, commissary, and 
burgomaster of Tecklenburg, was well known to have 
been, in the same manner, in deep earnest in his belief 
in Christianity, insomuch that after his death the people 
generally believed that a little hollow found in the 
floor of his chamber had been caused by the stream of 
tears shed by the saintly man when wrestling with God 
in prayer. 

Such beneficent stars as are seen shining out among 
the ancestors of my father’s family are seen also among 
the Mollers of my mother’s family. Chief among these 
is the pious woman under whose maternal blessing, and 
Christian counsel, and prayerful care, my mother grew 
up from her childhood. If ever a true and thankful 
remembrance of beloved parents was preserved in the 
hearts of children, this was the case with both my 
father and mother. My father, as his biographer truly 
testifies, “ could never speak but with deep inward 
emotion of childlike ecstacy of that heart-refreshing 
picture of motherly gracefulness,” in which, even to his 
old age, his departed mother with unfading distinct- 
ness hovered before his soul. Such pictures cease not 
to bless us even long after those whom they represent 
have shaken the dust of the earth from off their feet ; 
yea, they then for the first time truly bless those in 
whose loving remembrances they have found even on 
earth an enduring place. 


CHAPTEB II. 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


T the Duisburg Gymnasium, according to the some- 



what m echanical method of my teachers, it happened 
that within a year and a half I was promoted from the 
Quarta, i.e. the lowest, to the Tertia, the so-called 
“ Flegelklasse.” Perhaps it was necessary that here 
the school discipline should make itself felt as essentially 
of a severer character, and therefore the exhortations of 
the master were made to produce a deeper impression 
by the application of the hazel switch. But in praise 
of this class I must say, that while in it, and engaged 
in reading Ovid and Caesar, the first presentiment 
dawned upon my mind, that after one has once for all 
passed over the grammatical and lexical stumbling- 
blocks and difficulties, pleasure and enjoyment might 
truly he experienced in reading the ancient classics; 
and to this day I regret, and much more than I did 
then, that, in consequence of changes in my father s 
official position, my studies in the Tertia were inter- 
rupted in less than a year. 

The University of Duisburg had already, before the 
beginning of the French domination, fallen through 
neglect into a languishing condition. But in the un- 
happy year 1806, it received from the usurpers its death- 
blow. The professors, now reduced through death and 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


19 


translations to only three theologians, two in the medi- 
cal department and one jurist (for the noble philosopher 
Plessing had died a short time before, surrounded by his 
weeping friends, and, according to his own doctrine, 
had escaped away from all the troubles of the times to 
his own “ star ”), counted themselves fortunate if they 
found some four or five, students sitting at their feet ; 
and, besides, they were continually wrestling with the 
authorities for their salaries, which were at the best but 
paltry. These, in the most favourable circumstances, 
they received only in dribblets, but more frequently only 
in promises for the future, and, since the university was 
to have no future, with well-meant hints that the best 
thing for them to do was to seek for employment in 
some other sphere. Yet, for all this, as appears from 
letters of several of those gentlemen on whom the 
calamity fell the heaviest, the black care, the “atra 
cura,” was quite overcome by genial contentedness, 
which was the fruit of faith. 

We boys were little aware of the difficulties of those 
times. The noble spirit of patriotism was too deeply 
implanted within us for us to do otherwise than con- 
template the quartering of soldiers upon us on its 
cheerful side, though it cost our parents many heavy 
sighs. We felt ourselves, indeed, not a little flattered 
when the proud grenadiers of the great Emperor con- 
descended, in a friendly manner, to joke and play with 
us; and it seemed to us to be more a festival than a 
calamity when the martial strangers helped us, as our 
table-companions, to consume the material profits of my 
father’s labours as an author. When I place myself in 
memory back again in the midst of our Duisburg 
family-life, I see it only in the light of the most cloud- 
less serenity, especially after Christiane Engels, the 


20 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


faithful friend of my parents, and the tender guardian 
of our youth, became an inmate of our dwelling. This 
was she who afterwards was known in wider circles as 
the active assistant of the noble Count von der Becke, 
in the Asylum at Diisselthal, and, at a later period, as 
the unwearied and blessed helper of the poor at Mun- 
ster, even to her old age. She lived in the memory of 
all — and they were not a few — who learned to know 
her ; for her whole character was so full of childlike 
benevolence, and was so genial, and liyely, and hearty. 
Being richly endowed with musical talent, by her own 
singing, and by forming us into a little choir of singers, 
she made our house a kind of music-hall. And by 
means of the magic wand of her harmonies, she exer- 
cised such a sway that, in the circle of friends who 
frequently and gladly sojourned under our roof, the 
discords of those times, so damping to the spirit, and 
productive of so much sorrow, did not so far penetrate 
into our midst as to deprive my father, in spite of his 
feelings of patriotic indignation against the invaders, of 
heart and joy enough to prosecute without ceasing his 
“ Parables/’ his little “ Festival-Book,” and his aesthetic 
work “ On the Spirit and Form of the Gospels.” In 
the year 1858, I sent to this motherly friend of our 
childhood, on the occasion of her 90th birthday, the 
following lines : — 


I hail thee with thanks, thou queen of my song ! 

On thy throne of honour thou’rt worthy of fame: 
With jubilee voice thy praise I’ll prolong, 

And tell of the mem’ries that hallow thy name. 
Bright scenes from the past crowd full on my view, 
And I see in them all God’s goodness to man ; 
Those glad days of old my thoughts all renew, 
Whenever I utter that word — Christiane ! 


THE YEABS OF BOYHOOD. 


21 


Thy name reminds me of the days of youth — 

Days spent among friends whom I loved so well — 

In a home where gladness, and peace, and truth, 

And the harmonies of joy were wont to dwell. 

Ofttimes do I ask, in my thoughtful dream, 

Shall this earth ever become lovely again ? 

Thy mild eye on me, how gently it beams, 

As the answer sounds in my ears — Christiane ! 

Where are they now round whose brow thou didst twine 
The laurel wreath ? Alas, from earth they have gone ! 

Yet mirror’d in thee, before me they shine, 

And I know them, and name them, every one. 

Fain into life would I call them once more : 

Ah, they come not! Yet in vision I see them, 

Their forms and their features, distinct as before, 

At the magic sound of thy name— Christiane ! 

Their lives I see them live over anew, 

And idyls, 1 and sermons, 2 and chorals, 3 I hear, 

With parables, 4 and songs, 5 and proverbs 6 true, 

And the memories of those times .shine clear 
When of thee I think. There is no name that can 
Bring back all the past like thine — 0 Christiane ! 

If pure and sacred thoughts my bosom swell, 

If hallow’d purposes and plans I frame, 

If lofty aims within my heart do dwell, 

To thee I owe them. How dear to me thy name ! 

And when with thankful mind I praise the Lord, 

Who, in love, from sins whereinto others ran 
Has kept me free ; in every song, that word, 

Thy dear name, inweaves itself — 0 Christiane! 

What we say in these verses regarding her whose 
fame they celebrate was not, it must be confessed, the 
object of our consciousness during our stay at Duisburg. 

1 Immermann. 2 Moller. 3 Natorp. 

4 Friedr. Adolf Krummacher. 5 Harder. 6 von Yincke. 


OQ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


What seeds she sowed in our hearts we had then 
scarcely any apprehension of at all. We boys were 
fond of unrestrained freedom, and had greater pleasure 
in sports and amusements than in serious matters, and 
were far fonder of rambling in the green woods, and in 
the meadows chasing the butterflies, and by the banks 
of the Rhine and the Ruhr, listening in the summer 
tune to the music of their waters, than in striving to 
become skilful in playing the piano, or in studying the 
sheets of music placed before us. My father did not, 
indeed, fail at times to admonish us earnestly, yet the 
subject of religion was but rarely on his lips. If at any 
time he reminded us of God and of His commandments, 
he always did so under such deep emotion, that the 
hot tears started from our eyes. He himself appeared 
to be afraid of such “ scenes but they afforded us a 
glance into his heart, which could only increase our 
veneration for him. 

The ship of the university, already a wreck, was un- 
mistakably on the point of sinking. He who alone 
could have averted such a catastrophe, had enough 
to do with other things besides the preservation of 
schools of learning. “ Sauve qui peut,” he cried, in 
answer to the professors who were in vain calling on 
the State for bread. “ Aide toi et Dieu t aidera !” was 
his only word of consolation. And God did help 
them. 

Several invitations to vacant congregations and 
schools soon came to our house from Detmold, Diiren, 
and Crefeld. The most acceptable of these came from 
the congregation of Kettwig, on the Ruhr, which was 
at that time only a village, but has now become a little 
manufacturing town. It was successful in applying for 
my fathers services. The magnificent, beautiful scenery 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


23 


which surrounded that ancient “ Vicus Cattorum ” had 
for him a peculiar charm. He was moreover highly 
pleased with the stalwart, intelligent peasantry, whose 
deputies, sent to him for the purpose of inducing him to 
accept of their invitation, brought with them a large 
number of the manufactures of that widely-extended 
parish. 

Enough. In the month of October, in the year 
1807, our beloved, peaceful home at Duisburg was 
broken up, amid all the storms of the outer world. 
Our entrance upon our new residence was celebrated 
with every demonstration of joy. The way was strewn 
with flowers, and we passed under triumphal arches, 
amid the pealing of the church-bells, accompanied by a 
procession on foot and on horseback as we were con- 
ducted to our home in Kettwig. It was not at all dif- 
ficult for my father, with the affection he bore for that 
simple people altogether untouched by the modern 
French civilisation, to exchange the professorial chair 
for the village pulpit. On the contrary, it was alto- 
gether in accordance with a deep necessity of his poetic 
nature, and with his simple, childlike disposition, to 
point out to the humblest among the people, in judi- 
cious figurative language, the secrets of the kingdom 
of heaven, as they disclosed themselves more and more 
to his own heart. 

In Kettwig, which had no high -school, I had to 
endure the humiliation, which was bitter enough, of 
seeing myself degraded, for a time at least, from the 
rank of a gymnasiast (they said it was on account of 
my writing and arithmetic) to that of a pupil of a some- 
what advanced elementary school, while my classical 
studies, amid many interruptions indeed, were prose- 
cuted under the direction of my father. As for the 


24 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


rest, there was in ns happy boys scarcely any more 
room for the ideal, when that which we now beheld 
surrounded us as actual realities. The beautiful beech 
forests, abounding with birds, which we were wont to 
perambulate, making them echo with our merry song — 
the exciting hunts we had in these forests for the nests 
of the raven, and the magpie, and the squirrel, when 
we climbed even to the loftiest branches of the trees — 
the high mountain ridges, difficult of ascent, from 
which the view all around stretched itself away into 
immensity — the exuberant, splendid strawberries and 
bilberries found in the lonely forest-glades and on the 
mountain slopes ; then the harmless, cheerful public 
festivals, such as the spring-festival, and the egg- 
festival on Easter Monday, celebrated sometimes on 
the high rocky eminence called the “ pulpit,” rising 
precipitously from the banks of the Ruhr, in which it 
mirrored itself, and at other times in the lovely Korn- 
thal below, among the green hawthorns which grew 
luxuriantly all over the ruins of the old “ Kattenberg 
and, at a later period, the riflemen's day, with its flying 
banners, the firing of the rifles, the merry shouts of 
the men, and the music and the dancing in the green, 
shady halls formed by the high overhanging oak and 
beech trees of the “ Heisterbusch and, besides all 
this, the pleasure of bathing in the summer time, and 
of catching fish and crays in the Ruhr, which was clear 
as crystal to its very bottom, and, in the winter time, 
of sporting on the splendid, sheet of ice extending for 
miles, smooth as a mirror, along the beautiful water, — 
what more was needed for us boys, to make us think 
this world a very paradise ? 

We, the sons of the minister, enjoyed also the 
pleasure of frequent visits with our father to the farms 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


‘ 25 

of the peasants, which, for the most part, were very 
extensive. There we received abundance of apples and 
nuts, and perhaps also presents of pigeons, which we 
carried home with us. We also made frequent excur- 
sions to the friendly families in our neighbourhood, 
especially to the excellent family of Keller, distin- 
guished for their cheerful disposition and their stead- 
fastness in the faith and love of the Gospel; and to 
the families of the genial Pastor Engels at Miihlheim, 
and of the always hearty Baedeker, and of the serene 
and peaceful Natrop in Essen, which last was after- 
wards to be more closely united with our own in the 
bonds of relationship. At times, also, we made more 
distant excursions, as to Boss, in Budberg, who was 
then surrounded with all the youthful glory of his 
likeness to Apollo, charming all hearts with his inex- 
haustible, harmless humour ; and to my soberminded, 
but in his own way not the less amiable, uncle, Gott- 
fried Daniel Krummacher, who was then already richly 
blessed in his pastoral labours at Wtilfrath. 

As a matter of course, the parsonage-house at Kett- 
wig received also many gladdening visits of heartily 
welcomed friends. In particular, we were frequently 
visited by the youthful pastor, Friedrich Strauss of 
Bonsdorf, who was at all times a welcome guest. His 
never wearisome flights of enthusiasm gave occasion to 
my father for many cheerful and well-meant jokes. 
His delightful “ Glockentone ” (Bell-peals),— the first 
volume of that precious and never-to-be-forgotten little 
work having then appeared, — was known far and wide, 
and, with its harmonious symphonies, prognosticated to 
the Church a glorious future. 

There was no lack of joyful experience and of health- 
ful excitement of many kinds to us boys during our 
B 


26 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


five years’ residence at Kettwig • would that I could 
boast in the same way of our progress in education ! 
This, alas ! was but fragmentary work, since our father, 
during the last of our five years there, was our only 
teacher, and he found almost his whole time taken up 
in his official duties in his widely-extended parish, 
although he had the assistance of an active colleague. 
I had certainly reached the age when I ought to have 
entered the “ Secunda” of the Gymnasium, but that 
goal could not yet be reached. Yet out of our some- 
what irregularly spent quinquennium at Kettwig there 
grew much precious gain for the future of life. As 
such I reckon, first of all, the ideal of pastoral life which 
we derived from the relation sustained by my father to 
his congregation. It was a source of great pleasure to 
see how my father was accustomed to hold intercourse 
with the peasants, among whom he daily went out and 
in throughout the different districts of the parish suc- 
cessively. With a cheerful, happy salutation, he would 
cross the threshold of their dwellings, if he had not 
already met them in the field, when he would receive 
from them in return as hearty and joyful a welcome. 
Far from discharging his official duties among them in 
a stiff, formal way, he first of all entered into a friendly 
conversation with them about all their every-day 
interests which engaged their attention (unless some 
serious family occurrences forbade such a style of 
conversation), their domestic affairs, and their temporal 
circumstances ; and I well remember how pleased he 
was when he saw their healthful appearance, and 
listened to the intelligent opinions which these homely 
people gave expression to in their conversations — in 
their own blunt and lively manner, indeed, but in a 
way not seldom betraying a rich fund of genuine 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


27 


mother-wit. “ There are many unpolished gems,” he 
often said, when he returned home from these pastoral 
journeys among his people ; “ the peasants are more 
sensible and intelligent than many big- wigs in the pro- 
fessorial chair, and on the judge’s bench.” He could 
enter into conversation with one quite intelligently on 
the subject of astronomy, with another on botany, in 
which sciences they were self-taught ; and there were 
not a few of them who conducted their agricultural 
operations to a certain degree scientifically. He knew 
with great skill how, in the course of conversation 
with the people on minor matters, to raise their 
thoughts step by step, ere they were aware of it, into 
a higher sphere. 

My father’s manner in dealing with the interests of 
men’s souls was not the method called the “ Pietistic ” 
nor the “ Methodistic.” He did not press upon them, 
in a violent way, discourses on repentance, nor did he 
overwhelm them with theologumena and dogmas. He 
made it his special aim at such a time to quicken within 
them the belief that all depended on God’s blessing, 
and thereby at the same time to awaken within them 
the consciousness of want, and lead them with all joyful 
confidence to lay hold of the compassion and grace of 
this God who has all things in His hands, which could 
only be done in fellowship with Christ, the Divine 
Mediator. Every one of his visits to the homes and 
cottages of his people assumed at length naturally the 
character of a quiet holy festival ; and seeing how much 
he loved them, they usually parted with him heartily 
shaking his hand, and with tears of emotion and of 
thanks in their eyes. He increased in the life of 
faith along with his parishioners, and they along with 
him. This was felt on both sides, and this formed the 


28 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


bond which bound them to each other with a tie more 
affectionate and tender than perhaps ever united a 
pastor and his congregation. They in many ways gave 
constant proof of their love to him, sometimes bring- 
ing him presents of diverse kinds from their farms, 
and sometimes in other and more thoughtful ways. 
Frequently have we heard those in health, as well as 
those who were in sickness, say to him, “ Herr Pastor, 
if you wish that we should bear our cares and sorrows, 
and be again cheerful and happy, let us see your coun- 
tenance. ” 

There were at that time in the congregation ex- 
perienced and advanced Christians. This could not be 
said, however, of the greater number of his parishioners, 
nor even of our father himself. These called them- 
selves “ the friends of Tersteegen,” because from his 
writings they chiefly sought their spiritual nourishment, 
though, under the nickname of “Feme” (the pure), 
they had to bear much ridicule. This ridicule they 
had, however, to place to the account, not always of 
their spiritual-mindedness, but for the most part only of 
the sectarian manner in which they generally conducted 
themselves, and the anchoretic exclusiveness with 
which they stood aloof from those whom they regarded 
as less enlightened than themselves. My father, how- 
ever, always stood in the gap in defence of these people, 
however little, as far as he was concerned, he could 
relish the external form of their life, or the narrowness 
of their views, and partly also of their hearts. He held 
intercourse, indeed, with them also, but more frequently 
and more satisfactorily with those whom he saw ani- 
mated for the first time with a serious fear of God, and 
who might truly be designated New Testament prose- 
lytes, in whom he was fully persuaded that he saw 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


29 


indications of a living and thoroughly sound develop- 
ment of Christianity. Of these he found a great num- 
ber in his congregation who were decidedly attached to 
him. One of them one day said to him, when the con- 
versation was about a wicked mocker and blasphemer, 
“ I indeed believe, Herr Pastor, that that man is a 
free-thinker, an atheist, yea, I believe, even a free- 

mason ! ” This expression, “ I believe even a freemason,” 
filled my father with great surprise, because he was still 
the “ Brother Itedner” (preacher) in the Duisburg 
Lodge, and it brought the resolution he had formed on 
his entrance into the sacred office suddenly to maturity. 
He never after that made mention of the order, except 
on one occasion, when to some one who asked him for 
information regarding freemasonry, he replied, “ Ask 
Frederick the Great, who is grand-master of the order, 
concerning it.” 

The sermons of my father — always listened to by 
large numbers, and heard with edification — even to this 
day sound their key-notes in my soul, however far they 
were then above my comprehension. I do not remem- 
ber ever to have heard any one preach the Gospel in a 
more loving tone and with a more dignified mien, or in 
a more heart- winning manner, than he did. Were I 
to give a motto to his sermons which would at once 
characterize their spirit and their general theme, I 
would present these words of the apostle, which 
naturally suggest themselves — “ But after that the 
kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man 
appeared, not by works of righteousness which we 
have done, but according to His mercy He saved 
us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of 
the Holy Ghost .” 1 He discerned his commission as a 
1 Titus iii. 4, 5. 


30 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


preacher especially in these words of Isaiah — “ Comfort 
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye 
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her 
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned .” 1 
And he remained true to this commission to the end of 
his days, only with ever-increasing penetration into the 
mysterious ground on which the command rested. 

Next to the beautiful image of pastoral life which 
was impressed on our memory from the time of our 
residence at Kettwig, together with the many joyful 
and sorrowful domestic events which happened to us 
there, the intimate acquaintance with the people which 
resulted from our familiar intercourse with them at 
that time, appears to me also as a valuable acquisition 
of that period of our life. With the exception of the 
sons of some of the manufacturers, our intercourse was 
limited to the boys of the humbler classes, in whose 
families we were quite at home, whose modes of speech 
we imitated, the circle of whose views and ideas we 
learned thoroughly to know, and whose sorrows and 
joys we sympathized in with some degree of sincerity 
of feeling. 

Out of this intercourse there sprang not only a deep, 
enduring affection for the so-called lower classes, but 
there was established in us also the permanent convic- 
tion that intelligence, a sound judgment, depth and 
penetration of mind, and a taste for the ideal, are not 
by any means monopolized by the higher and educated 
classes. It is true, indeed, that we ran the great risk 
of growing wild from our wandering about so freely 
with many idle children of the work-people ; but not 
only the manner of our parents’ house, but also of 
several other families with whom we had very friendly 
1 Isaiah xl. 1, 2. 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


31 


relations, families belonging to the higher ranks, tended 
successfully to counteract this danger* In particular, 
a wholesome influence was exerted over our upbringing 
by Christiane Engels, whom I have already mentioned, 
who was only, however, an occasional visitor to us 
during our stay in Kettwig ; and also by an intimate 
friend of our family, who had been early left a widow, 
and who resided in our neighbourhood. She also, even 
to this day, stands before the eye of my memory as a 
person in whom the strength of a masculine, regal spirit 
was blended, in the most perfect harmony, with gentle 
female modesty. This was the widow of Dr Schneider, 
the same who afterwards gained for herself an honour- 
able reputation as instructress of young girls at Heidel- 
berg, and who also became the much esteemed mother- 
in-law of the celebrated Heidelberg theologian, Bahr. 
Her whole appearance hovers before my mind, as often 
as I think of the words of Goethe’s “Tasso:” “If ye 
wish to know what is seemly, ask only at noble women.” 
We have reason to thank her, that she let no oppor- 
tunity pass by unimproved, of holding up before us boys 
those truths which might seem to draw tight again the 
somewhat loosened reins, that thereby we might be 
restrained within the path in which we ought to go* 
And from the decided manner in which she was wont 
to express these truths, she secured for them a firm 
place for ever, at least in our memory. 

More salutary than even that of their mother, who 
wished to win our reverence rather than our childlike 
affections, was the influence upon us — unconscious to us 
as well as to them — of her two little daughters, whom 
she had educated in the most careful manner. They 
took part with us in our education under my father, 
particularly in the study of the French and English 


32 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


languages. From them there began to flow in upon 
us a gentler feeling, so as to lead us to a higher con- 
versation, and to engage in more intellectual games 
than we had been accustomed to among the, in great 
measure, unrestrained children of nature with whom 
we mingled. In company with them we built arbours 
on the woody slopes of the mountains, where a beauti- 
ful prospect presented itself, and erected seats of turf, 
that we might afterwards surprise our parents with 
them in their walks. We sang together beautiful songs 
to the melodies of Reichardt and Harder ; and while we 
sang, we wove wreaths of flowers and leaves with which 
to adorn our houses. We also read to one another 
interesting stories, and portions from my father’s book 
of “ Parables.” 

Thus we were on many sides pleasantly guarded 
against contracting rudeness of manner. And if, in 
spite of the affectionately earnest sermons which we 
heard every Sabbath, and the beautiful examples set 
before us in the family circles of our .neighbours, as yet 
nothing of the Christian life manifested itself within us, 
still there was operating in our hearts an influence 
which could not fail from time to time to raise us yet 
higher. For the first time, when under instruction for 
confirmation, and especially when in the act of being 
confirmed, it happened to us that more decidedly religious 
thoughts were awakened within us, and we were con- 
strained, with many tears and with sincerity, to bow 
before God. Yet the first deep and enduring religious 
impression was made in me, and, if I mistake not, in 
my brother Emil also, during a visit we paid, at a later 
period, in the company of my father, to our uncle at 
Wiilfrath. In his house a younger brother was at that 
time confined to a bed of affliction, under a severe, 


THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD. 


33 


incurable malady. He was now on the point of depar- 
ture to the eternal world. We boys, who never 
before had seen any one die, were also led into the 
chamber, where lay the dying man. For the first time 
in our fives we saw, in the wasted form, the hollow 
cheeks, and the death-like paleness of the sufferer near 
his end, the dreadful appearance of Death, the “King of 
Terrors.” Dumb with amazement, and deeply agitated, 
there we stood, while the dying man was assisted in 
his endeavour to reach out to us his thin, bony right 
hand to bid us farewell. Our uncle interrupted the 
painful silence, and spoke to us, who were sobbing, 
these few and simple words : “Yes, dear young friends, 
as we all, so you too must one day fie on a dying bed. 
We are born to die. See that you learn early to believe 
in the Lord Jesus Christ, for, without Him, we are the 
most miserable of all creatures ! ” 

These words, spoken with great solemnity of manner, 
as well as the whole scene itself, we have never for- 
gotten, and never will forget. From amid all the 
sounds that might sometimes drown them in obli- 
vion, they always anew break forth upon our ear, like 
the solemn warnings of the funeral-bell. They did 
not then, however, bring us to the full experience 
of the divine fife. They were, however, at least, part 
of that leaven, whose penetrating power, at a later 
period, and first after very gradually overcoming many 
obstacles which rose up against it, made itself manifest 
in the hard dough of our nature. 


CHAPTER III. 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 

TT was high time for us to leave Kettwig. The 
advancement of our very fragmentary and much 
interrupted studies urgently required such a step. 
This happened at a fitting time, in consequence of my 
father having received an invitation to become General 
Superintendent of the Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg. “ I 
now leave my Elina, ” said he, with deep, heartfelt 
emotion, in his farewell sermon. To this the congre- 
gation responded with tears. Thus we at length 
migrated from the hanks of the Ruhr and the Rhine, 
to those of the peaceful and more gently-flowing Saale ; 
from the mountains and valleys of the “ rough, unpol- 
ished gems,” to the plains and meadows of the polished 
and polite Saxons. No matter ! we hoys, as well as 
our parents, departed — unwillingly, so far as our feel- 
ings moved us, hut readily, according to the dictates of 
the mind ; for what would have become of us if we had 
continued still in Kettwig, unless we had wished to be 
only peasants ? The sorrow we felt at leaving was 
overpowering. But thus it must he ; and therefore we 
proceeded on our journey, in the old fashion, in two 
calashes, along highways which were, for the most 
part, rough and uneven, and after many days we at 
length reached our new dwelling. 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


35 


The situation of the town of Bernburg, surrounded 
with vineyards on every hand, and encompassed by the 
Saale, surprised us in the most agreeable way by its 
pleasantness. A not less happy impression was made 
on us also by the splendid residence allotted us, situ- 
ated on the height near the Schlosskirche, from the 
upper windows of which a most pleasing, wide-spread 
view presented itself, embracing a great part of the 
duchy, and extending as far as the Hartz mountains, 
whose summit, the Brocken, was clearly visible. The 
quiet way in which we were received to our new home 
seemed strange to us, because it stood in too distinct a 
contrast with the manner in which pastors were usually 
welcomed by their congregations in the provinces of the 
Lower Bhine. Only a few friends, and these for the 
most part the future colleagues of my father, came out 
to meet their superintendent, as we approached the 
city; hut their welcome to us was right hearty, and 
fully reconciled us to the absence of any other demon- 
stration. We also consoled ourselves with the consider- 
ation that every land has its own manners and customs. 
We could not, however, prevent the bald, silent, manner 
in which we were permitted to enter the city from 
casting a little shadow over the commencement of the 
ecclesiastical life of our new home — a shadow which 
events afterwards proved to be merely imaginary. 

The first family care which lay on the heart of my 
parents was the introducing of their sons, whose 
scientific studies had been somewhat neglected, into 
the curriculum of regular students. And I am to this 
day thankful that Bernburg afforded them the much- 
wished-for opportunity of doing so. The Bernburg 
Gymnasium was in some respects admirably conducted 
as an educational institution, into the “ Secunda” of 


36 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


which I was now introduced. And I cannot but lay a 
fresh wreath of deepest thankfulness on the long since 
moss-covered graves of Herzog, at that time the learned 
director of the institution; of Friedrich Gunther, well 
known in the philological world, the enthusiastic friend 
of the Greeks; as well as of Professor Sachse, distin- 
guished for the animation and clearness of his able 
and stirring expositions of ancient history, and for his 
lectures on the Latin classics, electrifying even the 
dullest of his pupils. 

Under the guidance of such men one could not but 
learn something. Several of those who were then 
my fellow-pupils afterwards rose to the honoured 
position of gymnasial directors. By earnest striving, 
and by iron industry bestowed on our studies, it hap- 
pened that both I and my brothers were able in a short 
time to fill up the numerous chasms in our knowledge, 
and also to see our progress, in the most essential sub- 
jects at least, of our course of study, very honourably 
recognised, and once and again rewarded with prizes. 
That seems to me to be almost a wonder, when I look 
back upon the times so stormy, and so full of distractions 
of every kind, in which those studies were prosecuted. In 
the first year ( 1812 ) we saw a great part of the grand 
army of Napoleon pass along on its march to Prussia, 
with imposing pomp, and with an overbearing haughti- 
ness, as if already the whole world were subject to it- — 
a spectacle which naturally presented a most powerful 
attraction to our youthful fancy, whilst our parents in 
secret gnashed their teeth with anguish at the sight. 

The retreat, a few months afterwards, of the Emperor's 
army, once so proud and intoxicated with victory, but 
now reduced, by the judgment of God which overtook 
them on the snowy plains of Bussia, to a few tattered 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


37 


fragments, awakened, indeed, quite other feelings within 
us, and it contributed also not a little to withdraw our 
attention from our accustomed every-day work. Parti- 
cularly exciting to us was the moment which afforded 
us the opportunity for a brief quarter of an hour, during 
a change of horses, of seeing Napoleon himself, the great 
oppressor of nations, resembling in his aspect the busts 
of the Emperor Nero. We saw him as he sat, leaning 
back in silence in the corner of his carriage ; only once 
did he bend forward with cold formality when some 
young girls, without any display, handed to him a 
hunch of flowers. On the box of his carriage cowered 
his Mameluke Rustan, and armed carabineers with 
drawn sabres formed his escort. 

But now at length came the year 1813; the year of 
the reviving and elevation of the Fatherland, which 
had been long enough down-trodden; the year of the 
most glorious liberation, with its calls to arms, its 
enthusiastic bands of heroes, worthy of the ancient 
German fathers, its frequent victorious battles and 
skirmishes — which latter, with the booming of cannon, 
the rattle of small arms, and the glitter of swords, 
penetrated on one occasion within the boundaries, and 
even into the very streets, of our town. It could not 
but be that such scenes as these should materially 
derange all our plans of study. The patriotic fire 
which blazed through every district of Germany 
naturally also burned in our hearts, and we who formed 
the “ Secunda” and the “ Primaria” of the Gymnasium 
were fired with the desire of immediately joining the 
many thousands of our contemporaries, and of exchang- 
ing the pen and the ink-glass for the musket and the 
cartridge-box. With the full approval of my parents, 
I, at that time scarcely sixteen years of age, along with 


38 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


my friend and class companion, tlie present Oberhof- 
prediger (chief court-preacher) Hoffman, proceeded to 
Ballenstedt with the urgent request to von Boss, 
who was then charged with the formation of a new 
ducal battalion of Jagers, that he would permit us 
to join it. 

We met with a hearty reception from von Ross, and 
were dismissed with the remark, that in a few hours we 
might perhaps expect the decision of the Duke himself. 
With painful impatience, seated in our inn, we saw 
these “ few hours” pass slowly away, when at length 
a servant came to us with the order that we were 
immediately to betake ourselves to Herr von Ross. 
But how great was our surprise when it was explained 
to us that his Serene Highness knew and approved of our 
patriotism, but commanded us to return to school again, 
and that his Highness would call for us at the fitting 
time. Hanging our heads with sorrow we returned 
home, and two days afterwards, not without envying 
certain Primarians who had better success in Ballen- 
stedt, and were already busily engaged in making 
preparations for entering the battalion, we once more 
sat down at the school desk to read of the battle-tumults 
of the Homeric heroes, and of the triumphs of Julius 
Caesar. 

We saw ourselves soon, indeed, as a very poor recom- 
pense, placed under the chief command of the old 
councillor, the brave von Krosigk (the rank of a 
sergeant having been conferred on me), in the rifle or 
lance company of the Landsturm (militia), and the 
thought consoled us that in such a situation we might, 
in some practical way, contribute our share to the 
liberation of the Fatherland. But we experienced the 
very heavy sorrow of being permitted only to sing 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


39 


of the splendid victories gained at Gross-Beeren and 
the Katzbach, and, above all, at Leipzig, during our 
peaceful parade, and in the churches, or of declaiming in 
the hall of the Gymnasium, hut not, along with our 
laurel-crowned friends and brethren, to celebrate these 
victories on the bloody fields of battle. And when, in 
the year 1815, on the sudden return of the great exile 
from the island of Elba, we again in vain waited for the 
call of the ducal general, we devoted ourselves, with a sort 
of despair, and stimulated by an unusual ambition, wholly 
to study, resolved to conquer for ourselves, in default of 
one of another kind, the laurel of an enduring honour 
in the field of science. If we had needed any farther 
incitements and encouragements to this end, these were 
supplied to us in rich abundance in the many excellent 
and amiable guests of whom the house of my parents, 
distinguished for their hospitality, was scarcely ever 
empty, many of whom, belonging to the Confederate 
army, were quartered upon us. Thus I remember 
that our father one day came into our chamber, and 
with a joyful countenance said: “We have quartered 
with us to-day a most beloved man. He is a common 
soldier, or perhaps a chief Jager, but you will be 
delighted with the intelligence and learning of the 
young man who will dine with us.” And so it hap- 
pened. Who was this amiable, intelligent, enthusiastic 
youth in the Prussian uniform? It was Dieffenbach, 
who was afterwards Professor of Surgery at Berlin, 
and famed throughout the world as an operator. An 
incident of a different kind also occurred at this time, 
which did not pass without leaving its impression on 
us. A. W. Schlegel, the well-known and celebrated poet 
and historian, at that time secretary of the Crown Prince 
of Sweden, was quartered for several days in our house. 


40 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Although he left us a truly ridiculous and memor- 
able example of foppish self-conceitedness and childish 
self-sufficiency, and although the odour of the perfumes 
and ointments left in the room which he occupied pre- 
served for weeks after his departure the recollection of 
his sojourn with us, yet it cannot he denied that his 
conversation, by reason of its keen wit, as well as on 
account of its brilliant manner and its rich matter, 
contributed to the quickening of our youthful spirits, 
and helped to increase our love for the ideal, and for 
all that was aesthetically beautiful. 

The oft-repeated visits of the famed Dresden painter, 
Gerhard von Kiigelgen, whose younger son was then 
being educated along with the hereditary prince, exer- 
cised a lasting and beneficial influence upon our minds. 
Those were festival days in our house, and particularly 
to our father, which this truly excellent man — in whom, 
although he was a Catholic, we believed we saw the 
character of a true Christian — spent with us ; and that 
joy was doubled when his wife, of the family of von 
Manteuflel of Esthonia, and like himself in spirit and 
disposition, accompanied him. What this man spake 
always came forth like pure, refined gold; and even 
when his conversation was about secular and insignifi- 
cant things, his language always bore the reflection of a 
higher consecration. The terrible death of this child of 
God, advanced beyond thousands of others in his piety, 
is one of the many most perplexing mysteries of Divine 
Providence . 1 

But among the many other beloved guests who 
sojourned with us a longer or a shorter time, and 
who left behind them enduring, and in many respects 
beneficial, impressions on us the sons of the house, 

1 He was murdered. 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


41 


I certainly place in tlie foremost rank our uncle Moller, 
whom I have already referred to. He was at that 
time Professor of Theology in the University of Bres- 
lau. We were accustomed to say of him as often 
as he appeared among us, “ He brings with him new, 
fresh life into our house.” And his inexhaustible stores 
of information, which he never tired in communicat- 
ing, as well as the lively interest he manifested 
in an interchange of thoughts, never disappointed 
our high expectations, but rather always exceeded 
them. With what delight were we wont to listen 
to him when he communicated to us the most recent 
intelligence from the P^epublic of Letters, the interest- 
ing discoveries that had been made, the conjectures 
and hypotheses in the region of .the various sciences, 
news about the universities, and literature, and many 
other subjects ! And what an inexhaustible, incom- 
parable fund of humour he had, keeping the risible 
faculties of the listeners continually in motion, while 
at the same time he manifested the most lively and 
sacred interest in all that was true, and good, and 
beautiful! How the period of the “ Hainbund” lived 
again before our eyes, in the copious recitations by his 
eloquent bps from the writings of Gleim, and Burger, and 
Stolberg, and especially from those of Holty ! How 
majestically also did we see Klopstock’s genius pass 
before us when with overflowing emotion he recited his 
odes, or portions from his “ Messiah ” and the “ Her- 
mannschlacht ! ” We young people at least welcomed no 
one more joyfully than we did uncle Moller. He had a 
happy way of looking at all things in such a light as to 
be able to point out in them a good and pleasing side, 
and he was always full of admiring thankfulness. He 
was remarkable also for his amiable absent-mindedness, 


c 


42 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


which in his later years increased to a degree exceeding 
the limits of all propriety; so much so that on one 
occasion, at a Consistorial Session, having laid aside his 
cloak, he sat down in his shirt sleeves, forgetting that 
he had not put on his coat before he had left his house. 
On another occasion, while on a visit to his son at 
Elberfeld, all at once, in clear daylight, he made his 
appearance in the streets, arrayed in gown and bands, 
marching solemnly along, engaged in an animated con- 
versation with the servant-girl of his son s house, 
whom he had met carrying a market-basket on her arm, 
supposing all the while that he was conversing with his 
intelligent wife by his side. 

I mention farther, among those distinguished persons 
who exercised a direct and enduring influence on our 
spiritual and mental development, Dr Christian Spiess, 
at that time pastor of the German Reformed congrega- 
tion of Frankfurt-on-the-Maine. He was one of the 
most eloquent men I ever met with. He not only 
impressed us by his penetration of mind showing itself 
in all his opinions, but he also carried us along in the 
most delightful manner by the sparkling and brilliant 
flashes of his rich genius, and by his keen, and, in truth, 
sometimes satirical descriptions of the learned men and the 
preachers of Berlin, from the midst of whom he had just 
come to us, and with whom he associated as preacher 
to the Court and in the Domkirche — a practice which, 
however, at a later period, he was induced to abandon. 

There also frequented our house, Natorp of Pots- 
dam, member of the Consistory and of the Council of 
Education, who was famed for his musical talent ; the 
distinguished chancellor, Niemeyer; the noble Count 
von der Becke-Yolmarstein, 1 who first took the lead in 
1 Founder of the House of Refuge in Diisselthal, 1816. 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


43 


that work which was afterwards comprehended under 
the name of the “ Inner Mission the learned archae- 
ologist, Bottiger of Dresden ; and Professor Lindner of 
Leipzig, the courageous confessor and bold leader in 
contending for the cause of the pure Gospel. By all 
these distinguished men an animating influence was 
exerted upon us. 

Among those who lived in familiar intercourse with 
us were the benevolent, thoroughly honourable, and 
affectionate chief court-preacher, Starke of Ballen- 
stedt, author of the once widely circulated “Household 
Pictures,” read by many thousands with emotion and 
delight ; and the consistorial assessor, and afterwards 
consistorial councillor, Meister of Bernburg, a serious 
man, and of extensive erudition, hut yet, under a stern 
exterior, a man of deep affection. Whenever he spent 
an evening with us, which was frequently the case, our 
little family concerts usually moved him to tears of deep 
emotion. 

To all the men I have now named we owed more or 
less our thanks, that, unconsciously and without inten- 
tion, they helped to fire us with the desire for our 
intellectual improvement. But let no one think of us 
as at that time buried in the dust of books, and as pale 
recluses, eaten up with zeal for learning. We lived 
a fresh young life, through which, as through the lives 
of most educated youth at that time, there moved a 
strong romantic bias. We read with our parents 
Tasso's “ Jerusalem Delivered,” the “ Magic Bing,” 
and “ Undine ; ” Alexinger's “ Bliomberis,” and 
“ Doolin von Mainz;” the “ Gotz von Berlichingen ” 
of Goethe, and such-like productions. We sang to- 
gether Arndt's, Korner's, and Schenckendorl's songs, 
and Uhland's romances, as well as choruses from 


44 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


“ John of Paris,” and other operas. We even adapted 
with an audacious hand the plays of Goethe and Schiller 
to our own use ; and with costumes which we ourselves 
contrived, we acted them in a spacious bower in the 
garden. We ourselves also ventured to write poetry. 
It also sometimes happened that, in the still, romantic 
hours of the evening, unwatched by Argus eyes, we 
gladly sung our songs, accompanied with the guitar, on 
a high rampart under the walls of the ancient Schloss 
of Bernburg, the lovely daughter of the Castellan 
standing on the lofty balcony representing to us the 
noble ladies of the castle. And what pleasure we 
enjoyed in winter on the frozen Saale, and in summer 
what delight we had in the merry song as we plied the 
oars of our flower-bedecked gondola on its smooth 
waters ! A gleam of rosy gladness hovered around 
these the days of our youth, which, however, exposed 
our studies to so little danger, that it rather imparted 
to them a new and higher enthusiasm. 

But how did it fare with our Christianity ? That great 
period of the most glorious deliverance and elevation of 
the Fatherland undoubtedly bore on it the stamp of a 
sacred festival. The people rendered to God, after 
having long forgotten Him, the honour which was His 
due. The churches were again filled with worshippers 
as they had not been for many years before, and again 
they echoed with the songs of praise and thankfulness. 
“ The Lord has been our helper,” men were heard 
frequently to say — men from whose lips such a pious 
utterance was never heard before. A powerful attrac- 
tion was felt in the sign of the cross, which, surrounded 
with the animating device, “ Forward, with God, for 
King and Fatherland ! ” gleamed, amid the tumult of 
battle, on the brow of the conqueror. Little crosses 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


45 


and crucifixes were the most coveted ornaments which 
the women hung around their necks. A religious tone 
pervaded the favourite songs which were sung by the 
people everywhere throughout Germany, such as Arndt’s 
“ Der Gott, der Eisen wachsen liess,” and Korner’s 
“Vater, ich rufe Dich.” Even the cold, hard ration- 
alism (which then, from almost all the pulpits of the 
land, cast down to its scanty congregations, condemned 
to spiritual famine, its poor ideas, which were only 
chopped straw and husks) felt itself breathed upon and 
irradiated by the general religious spirit which hovered 
in the very air ; and its God, who till then had only 
idly contemplated, as from an immeasurable distance, 
the movements of His great world-machine perpetually 
revolving according to fixed laws, became a living God, 
and came near to men as the Hearer of prayer and the 
Director of battles. 

In Anhalt also, — where, in spite of the influence of 
the Duke, who was on the side of orthodoxy, though 
he was also' disaffected towards all “ pietism,” till that 
time scarcely in any other churches than in those of my 
father and of the consistorial assessor, Meister, was the 
sound of the unencumbered Gospel ever heard, — the 
same interest in religion was awakened. Meister was 
our teacher of religion in the Gymnasium, and the deep, 
awe-inspiring earnestness of that excellent man could 
not fail to have a wholesome influence over us. Yet, 
on the one hand, he failed in the gift of interesting 
the minds of the young in the truths of Christianity, 
and of accommodating himself to the movements of 
their inner world of thought ; and, on the other, by 
adhering in his lectures to the directions laid down in 
Niemeyer’s “ Lehrbuch ftir die hoheren Gymnasial- 
klassen ” (Compendium for the use of the higher classes 


46 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


of the Gymnasium), he failed to set himself free from 
the doctrines then taught in the schools, which would 
have enabled him with greater boldness to apply to our 
hearts the Word which was to the Jew a stumbling- 
block, and to the Greek foolishness. Naturally, the 
youth did not remain unmoved by the signs of the 
breaking through of better times. And if our relation 
to God did not all at once occupy the foreground in our 
minds, so as to determine all our actions and thoughts, 
yet was there present with us at least something of 
this, and we, the sons of our father’s house, felt our- 
selves animated by new sentiments and emotions, which 
were created within us by the spirit which reigned 
in that house. Not that there was in our house any 
definite recognition of God in the form of worship, be- 
yond the frequent singing of beautiful spiritual songs. 
Regular “ family- worship” was not the custom, and 
religious conversation, though not in itself so much dis- 
approved by our father as conversation on sacred sub- 
jects with an unwashed mouth, was only seldom heard. 
But there was in the atmosphere of our domestic life, 
in other respects spent in harmless cheerfulness, that 
which always again put us in mind of the “ sursum 
corda ; ” and the frequent and familiar intercourse of our 
father with the families of decidedly Christian-minded 
noblemen in our neighbourhood, particularly with that 
of von Krosigk in Hohenerxleben, contributed not a 
little to reconcile us early to a contemplation of the 
glory of an elevated evangelical life of faith, far above 
the level of the common and undefined fear of God 
which was then so generally making itself manifest. I 
bless the dear land of Anhalt, which became a second 
Fatherland to me, and which has not yet forgotten the 
labours of my father there, who was aided indeed by 


THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 


47 


the circumstances of the times, in the reviving and 
recovery of its church, then sunk into deep lethargy. 
The number of able and successful preachers of biblical 
truth increased visibly in the land under the influence 
and encouragement of their superintendent and friend. 
Among these I may name Pastor Klaus, still surviving, 
the well-known author of a learned Commentary on 
the Book of Psalms ; and the Provost Rosenthal, a 
valiant and richly blessed witness for the truth. 

In the elementary schools of Anhalt the Gospel again 
assumed an honourable place. And if afterwards the 
rising Christian life appeared to the reigning Duke, 
who was truly a benevolent man and possessed of 
many excellent virtues as a ruler, to become too zealous 
and active, and some ungracious utterances of his 
Serene Highness about the “ increasing pietism” led 
my father to accept a call to another sphere of labour, 
yet the separation between him and the Duke was 
equally deplored by both of them after it took place. 
As the Duke afterwards confessed that he had con- 
founded true Christianity with mystic enthusiasm, so 
our father confessed that he also had too rashly given 
effect to his vexation at the loss of confidence in him 
on the part of his ruler and patron. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 1 

TTAVING happily completed my curriculum at the 
Gymnasium, and passed the final examination (exa- 
men maturitatis 2 ) cum laude , I now went forth full of 
hope and expectation to the University. Since it was an 
understood thing that, by birth and by natural talents, 
I was predestined to theology, I now proceeded to the 
old Fredericiana at Halle, and sought wisdom at that 
fountain of learning. With a joyful heart, in company 
with some of my fellow-students, who were also going 
to that university, I set out on my journey. We 

1 The University of Halle, on the Saale, in the Saxon province of Prussia, 

was founded 1694, and after the annexation of the Saxon province to 
Prussia was enlarged hy having the University of Wittenberg merged into 
it in 1817. “ During the former half of the last century, it was the literary 

stronghold of the pietistic school of Spener and Franke. But from the 
time of Semler (professor at Halle from 1751 ; died 1791), the father of 
German neology, it fell into the hands of rationalism, as represented by 
the celebrated Hebrew scholar Gesenius, and the didactic divine Weg- 
scheider, who gave tone and character to the university for more than twenty 
years. During this last time the venerable Knapp was the only evangelical 
professor there, and he, with all his learning and zeal, could not turn the 
current of the age. But since the arrival of Tholuck in 1827, a gradual change 
has taken place, so that the present faculty is composed of sound Christian 
teachers.” It is Protestant and evangelical. During the last winter ses- 
sion (1868-69) there were present at the university, in all the faculties, 859 
students, who were under the care of 81 professors and teachers. — Tr. 

2 The “ Abiturienten-examen,” without which no one can be admitted 
as a regular student at the university. — Tr. 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


49 


thought ourselves all at once, on what ground it is diffi- 
cult to say, “ higher than any one of the people, from 
the shoulders and upwards.” Our hearts beat within us 
with the feeling of a new and more elevated existence. 
Was that which filled us with such ecstacy the ideal 
of sovereign freedom which we now supposed to be 
realized for us, or the prospect of climbing the heights 
of science, where we hoped to find the solution of all 
mysteries and problems, or the anticipated joy of new 
youthful relationship which we saw before us ? Enough 
— perhaps never did youths enter with greater delight 
and exultation on their academical triennium than we 
did. No Greek youth could ever look with more hopeful 
expectation on the pinnacles and domes of Athens and 
of Delphi, as from afar he saw them rising to his view, 
than did we on the towers of “ Alma Mater,” toward 
which, with knapsack on our back and staff in hand, 
we now eagerly hastened, when at length we saw them 
appear on the horizon, rising up from amid the dark 
heath of the extended plain in which the town is built. 

Our fair dreams, sad to say, ended in many disap- 
pointments, the sting of which we afterwards keenly 
felt. 

The depression that had fallen on the University of 
Halle from the sorrowful events of the time, had now 
passed away, and in the winter semester, 1815-16, there 
had assembled at that university more than 600 theolo- 
gical students, many of whom were adorned with badges 
of honour which they had won on the battle-fields of the 
great war of liberation, from which they had just 
returned. Not without thankfulness do I recall to 
memory those who were at that time pillars of the 
theological faculty there, although, with the exception 
of only one, they were not also pillars in the “ kingdom 


50 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


of God.” When in thought I take my place again in 
the auditorium, and at the feet of him who was *ar’ 
the great chancellor , 1 a pathetic feeling comes 

1 Niemeyer. 

“ The organization of the European, universities is derived from that of 
Paris, the oldest among them (founded in the twelfth century), and was 
originally of a double kind — national and literary. They were divided 
into four, or as many more nations as were represented in the body of 
teachers and pupils ; and into four faculties, a term which signifies both the 
professors devoted to a particular science, and the sciences themselves. 

“ The former division has been long since abolished ; the latter remains. 
Each faculty has its dean, who is elected annually from the professors who 
constitute it. At the head of the whole academic body stands the rector or 
the chancellor, who is likewise chosen for one year from the regular professors 
of the various faculties in turn, and entrusted with the care of government 
and administration, according to the statutes or constitution. The legis- 
lative power resides in the academical senate, which is composed of all, or 
a delegated part of, the ordinary professors of the four faculties. A uni- 
versity is thus a complete republic of letters, with an organization of its 
own, and enjoys, with the exception of Austria, a high degree of indepen- 
dence upon the Church and the State. The academic liberty, both intellectual, 
moral, and personal, the liberty of the professors to teach, and of the 
students to learn, without any restraint from without, is regarded as one of 
the highest privileges of a German university.” The four faculties are 
(1.) that of Theology; (2.) that of Philosophy , formerly called “ facultas 
artium liber alium ;” (3.) of Law (facultas juris canonici et civilis) ; (4.) of 
Medicine. There are three classes of teachers at the German universities — 
(1.) the ordinary professors, “ who are regular members of the faculty, 
receive a full support from the State independent of the proceeds of their 
lectures (2.) extraordinary professors, “ who have no seat in the faculty, a 
smaller income, but are generally promoted to a regular professorship when 
a vacancy occurs (3.) the private lecturers (privat-docenten), “ who have 
passed through the examen rigorosum, and deliver lectures like the regular 
professors, but are without appointment, and receive, with a few exceptions, 
no salary from the State. They depend therefore for their support upon the 
lecture-fees of their hearers.” — Schaff’s Universities of Germany. 

In the 23 German universities there were during the last semester, 
1868-69, in the 23 theological faculties, in all 3556 students and 203 pro- 
fessors and teachers ; in the 21 faculties of law, 3794 students and 247 
professors ; in the 1 1 medical faculties, 3353 students and 453 professors ; 
and in the 23 philosophical faculties, 4670 students and 830 professors. 
Thus at all the German universities there were in attendance in all 15,373 
students, under the instruction of 1733 professors and other teachers attached 
to them. — T r. 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


51 


upon me. This greatly celebrated man, intoxicated by 
the applause of his times, dreamed of an absolute per- 
petuity of his fame. But less than fifty years have 
been sufficient to sink all his works (and their name was 
legion), with perhaps the exception of his “ PaBagogik,” 
in the sea of complete oblivion. With what confidence 
did he bring the prophets and apostles into subjection to 
his ideas of humanity, and with what dexterity was he 
wont to leap over those stones of stumbling which stood 
in his way, the miracles of Scripture, observing merely 
in passing that they were devoid of any immediate 
practical signification for us ! But that which always 
impressed us most in his lectures was, along with the 
elegance of his style of exposition, in which he fre- 
quently rose to a high poetic elevation of thought, the 
singularly respectful reserve and awe with which he 
was wont to speak of the Person of Jesus. He could 
never bring himself to rank Him among those person- 
ages whom he designated and described in his “Charac- 
teristik der Bibel,” according to a purely human estimate. 
Perhaps he felt, though he did not acknowledge it, 
that in Him he had to do with a super-human Being ; 
and if he protested against being numbered among the 
rationalists, he had grounds for doing so, in so far at 
least as his sentiment (Ahnung) was more orthodox 
than his creed (Begriff). 

If the rationalism of Niemeyer presented itself in 
a gentle and veiled form, that of Wegscheider stood 
forth in an open, decided, outspoken manner in his 
theological teachings at Halle. The only source of 
religious and moral truth which he then recommended 
to us was Beason, which, in searching the Holy Scrip- 
tures, had to determine whether the biblical state- 
ments were worthy of being received, or were to be 


52 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


rejected. As a consequence of this, we saw the Lord 
of Glory stripped of all His supernatural majesty, 
shrivelled into the rank of a mere Rabbi, noble indeed, 
and highly gifted, but yet always entangled by the 
prejudices of his time. He had never performed a 
real miracle, and had neither risen from the dead nor 
ascended up into heaven. We saw also the whole 
contents of the Gospel, after being stripped of its 
particularistic and mythic veilings, reduced to a mere 
moral system, for the manifestation of which no divine 
revelation was at all needed. 

What was to us a psychological mystery in a man 
otherwise so learned and altogether so honourable as 
Doctor Wegscheider, was the remarkable naivetd with 
which, like a very conjuror, he interpreted the 
language of Scripture in accordance with his own 
ideas, though it manifestly taught the very opposite 
of that which he set forth and wished to prove. But 
that which infused into us a reverence for this Cory- 
pheus of Rationalismus vulgaris, was, along with the 
devotion he showed toward his God of nature, and his 
fidelity to his convictions, the high moral earnestness 
which breathed in all his words, and indeed revealed 
itself in his whole life. And yet how could a theology 
so jejune and so destitute of heart and feeling as his 
was, possess any attraction for those of his hearers 
whose souls were capable of a higher elevation, espe- 
cially as it depended on an exegesis which, by its 
capriciousness, violated in the most arbitrary manner all 
sound taste? From Wegscheiders Dogmatics I learned 
more about rationalism than I did about Christianity, 
and knew- that it was so also with many others of my 
fellow-students, who, at the most, were pleased only 
with the logical frame in which' his caricature of the 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


53 


Gospel was set. Thousands, indeed, there were who 
carried away with them from Wegscheider s class-room 
more than the frame, and many congregations are to 
this day doomed to spiritual famine because they have 
presented to them only the husks and chaff which were 
there gathered and stored up by his students. If 
Wegscheider was not the founder of rationalism, since 
he stood on the shoulders of Semler and others, yet he 
was certainly its most distinguished apostle, and most 
able advocate and director ; and Hohr was its great 
homiletic expounder, the channel through which the 
wisdom of the Professor at Halle was popularised in 
the sermons of pastors, and thus diffused throughout 
the churches. 

The rationalism of the great Hebrew scholar Gesenius, 
who was then still a young man, presented itself to us 
in a form altogether different from that of the always 
respected and earnest-minded Wegscheider. I cannot 
think of this little, lively, petulant man, from whom, it 
is true, much was to be learned in Orientalibus , and 
who was skilful in urging us on to write long Hebrew 
exercises in private, otherwise than with the traces of 
a sarcastic smile playing around his mouth whenever 
he had occasion to allude 'to any of the specifically 
Christian doctrines, or to the history of the miracles 
recorded in the Bible. In particular, in his Lectures 
in Church History, his unbelief not unfrequently rose 
up and manifested itself in the most open frivolity; we 
seemed to be frequently conducted by him through 
some large lunatic asylum, in which there was presented 
to us only that which excited deep pity and compassion, 
or provoked Homeric laughter, with which the whole 
area of his auditorium, always filled to its remotest 
corner, was oftentimes convulsed in response to the 


54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

sallies of the Professor’s wit. Unfortunate, indeed, is 
he who has not learned the history of the church of 
God on earth, otherwise than as taught in the lectures 
of that caricaturist in the Theological Faculty at Halle. 
On the other hand, fortunate is he who had wisdom to 
appropriate to himself the treasures of Oriental litera- 
ture and antiquities which this “ master in Israel” was 
wont to scatter so abundantly among his students. As 
a philologist he has achieved for himself a deathless 
name. What Oriental scholar of the present day does 
not stand upon his shoulders ? 

The Professor of Practical Theology and university- 
preacher was at that time the friendly Marx. He 
always wore white glace gloves and embroidered bands 
when he entered the pulpit, and he intoned the prayers 
and collects of the Liturgy with a tenor voice which 
would have been worthy of the opera. He left nothing 
undone, by his teaching and example, t_o form us, 
according to his own model, into elegant and aestheti- 
cally irreproachable preachers of a Christianity adapted 
to the taste of the times. In order to train us to our 
future pulpit duties he caused us by turns, standing 
before a table ' adorned with two silver candelabra, in 
an elegant saloon in his own house, to read portions in 
prose and verse from our German classics. On such 
occasions there was also present, as a general rule, an 
invited company of ladies and gentlemen, whom he 
filled with wonder at his fine and ingenious criticisms, 
while he at the same time also encouraged us by his 
judicious and commendatory expressions of opinion 
regarding our mode of utterance, our rhetorical style, 
and declamatory talent. On one occasion he even in- 
duced the celebrated stage-player, Frau Handel-Schiitz, 
to entertain us on one of those evenings with some of 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


55 


her pantomimic actings, because he thought that this 
might in some respect contribute to our training as 
public speakers. It is true, indeed, that many an 
accurate gesticulator, and enchanting flowery speaker, 
has gone forth from his school; but even those who 
would not venture to reckon themselves in such a class 
have preserved an enduring affectionate remembrance 
of the kind, benevolent man. 

The only one in the University of Halle who — I 
would say held aloft the banner of the Gospel, were I 
not afraid lest, in such an expression, I should present 
him before the reader as a man of heroic stature, which, 
certainly, this man, whose memory I revere, was not, 
and therefore I will rather say — taught with a believing 
heart a Scriptural theology, was “ der alte Knapp” 
(the old Knapp), as he was then called, though he was 
only fifty years of age. This “ last descendant of the 
old evangelical school of Halle” was well able, from 
intellectual ability and scientific attainment, to have 
waged a successful war against the then reigning 
rationalism, and to have tossed from their airy saddles 
its champions among his colleagues who were intoxi- 
cated with triumph ; but his excessive gentleness and 
modesty, bordering even on timidity, led him carefully 
to avoid everything like direct polemics, and permitted 
him only now and then at the most, and with a tone of 
voice betraying the existence of a hostility inwardly 
suppressed, and provoking on the part of his auditors a 
secret smile, to make reference to “ Herr Doctor Weg- 
scheider” as “ one who was of another way of thinking.” 
To this almost painfully cautious reserve, which he was 
accustomed to manifest in his, at the most, very sparing 
intercourse with the students, this- circumstance might 
in some degree contribute, that he had continually to 


56 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


contend with, feeble health; yet the principal cause of 
it was, perhaps, the anxiety he felt, rooting itself in a 
deep consciousness of sin, for the salvation of his own 
soul, which, as it made him forbear to pass judgment 
on others, so it withdrew his thoughts altogether from 
the outer world, and fixed them on himself. 

Perhaps there was not a single young theologian 
in Halle who did not feel himself constrained, from 
whatever motive it might be, to listen to Knapp's 
exegetical lectures, which were at once so profound and 
judicious. His auditorium was always crowded ; and 
although by far the greatest number of his students 
called him a “ pietist" or a “ Herrnhutter,” living after 
his time, yet no one could resist the impression of the 
perfect sincerity and unfeigned heart-piety, calling 
forth esteem, which manifested itself in all his words 
and conduct. How respectfully did we uncover our 
heads, if the little plain-looking man, walking, as he 
was wont to do, with his head somewhat bent down- 
wards, and with a countenance always cheerful, met us 
at any time in the afternoon, when on his way toward 
the quiet country-house where he was accustomed to 
have coffee ; and how, as often as we crossed the 
threshold of his study, our hearts beat within us as 
if we had entered a holy place ! When on such an 
occasion I once composed myself to ask from him the 
solution of 'a certain theological difficulty which had 
arisen in my mind during one of his lectures, he 
appeared almost embarrassed; then handing to me 
from his library the work of Kleuker, entitled “ Men- 
schlicher Yersuch ueber den Sohn Gottes und der 
Menschen,” with a hearty salutation he dismissed me, 
saying, “ Read that, and forget not earnestly to pray 
for enlightenment from above." 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


57 


Had this beloved man entered with more freedom 
and vigour into the subject, and had he, in a more 
direct manner than that which he adopted, aimed the 
lance of the faith and of science against the neology of 
the time, this, from the prevailing susceptibility then 
moving the minds of so many youths, would have 
enabled him to raise up a new school in opposition 
to the rationalistic. But his timid and strictly didac- 
tic method said as little to the youthful thinkers as 
did the too contracted, ascetic form in which his life 
of faith had clothed itself. He did not understand 
how to meet those thoughts which, at that time, 
pulsated within us, and were leavening our spirits, nor 
how to use the means necessary for bringing us over 
to the adoption of his own religious sentiments. He 
showed an inexpressible joy when, on one occasion, 
among a great number of students, who always sat 
at his feet, he discovered one whom he had gained 
to his standard. Speaking of this, he thus wrote to 
one of his friends : “ It has been to me, indeed, a 
source of very great encouragement that our dear 
Lord has answered the prayer, which at the last 
Easter feast I presented to Him, in the sincerity of my 
heart, that He would grant me, from among the 
students who have newly assembled here, only one 
whom I might discover to be favourably inclined 
toward His sweet Gospel. This might give me some 
courage to pray for more than one ; but,” continued 
the modest man, “ I have not yet had freedom enough 
to do so ; but am meanwhile content to pray for the 
preservation and protection of this one He has given 
me.” 

At a later period, however, the good seed of the 
Word, which he had sown in prayerful hope, sprung 
D 


58 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


up into a rich harvest, as he himself afterwards, in the 
last years of his life, was able abundantly to testify. 
“ Here is my consolation,” said he, “ in the letters of 
those in whom., for the first time, in the midst of their 
official experiences, the seed sown has grown up/’ And 
how many are there yet living who in spirit lay a 
wreath of deepest gratitude on his tomb ! That saying 
of our Lord’s 1 remains always true, “ One soweth, and 
another reapeth and Knapp’s immediate followers in 
the faith have had these words abundantly realised in 
their experience, “ I sent you to reap that whereon ye 
bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are 
entered into their labours.” 

Thus we young theologians stood then, to a great 
degree, without support; on the one side we were 
repelled, and we were not attracted on the other. 
De Wette’s 2 theology, which was based on the philo- 

1 John iv. 37, 38. 

2 Author of “ Theodor oder des Zweiflers Weihe” (Theodore, or the Con- 
secration of the Sceptic), a work which appeared, in two volumes, in 1822. 
The object of the work was to show that all religion was deducible from an 
innate propensity of the human mind, controlled and refined by reason and 
experience. “ The divine excellency of the Christian religion,” it teaches, 
“ is especially conspicuous in this, that it directs men to seek their salvation 
within their own breasts, without any foreign aid whatever.” It proceeded 
on the principle that religion consists in feeling, and that revelation is just 
the kindling up of the original light in man. Dr Tholuck, who still lives, 
one of the brightest ornaments of the Evangelical Church of Germany, suc- 
ceeded “der alte Knapp” in the Chair of Theology at Halle in 1826. 
Detecting the rationalistic character of Dr de Wette’s work, he published 
(1825) a work well worthy of a permanent place in theological literature, 
fitted to counteract its influence, entitled “Die Lehre von der Sunde und voin 
Versohner: oder die wahn Weihe des Zweiflers,” which has been translated 
into English under the title of “ Guido and Julius ; or Sin and the Propitia- 
tion.” Shortly before his death, which took place in 1848, De Wette made 
the following touching confession regarding himself, and his efforts to frame 
a consistent religious system : — 

“ Ich fiel in eine wirre Zeit 
Des Glaubens Einfalt war vemichtet 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


59 


sophical system of Fries , 1 brought, apparently at least, 
to some of us the wished-for help. That theology 
claimed to be a reconciliation of reason and feeling, and 
it spoke the word scientifically both to the intellect 
and to faith. If Wegscheider wholly rejected every- 
thing that was supernatural in Christianity, and 
abandoned us, who were thirsting after the positive, to 
a Bible which he had converted into a mere worthless 
collection of fragments, a tabula rasa, — Knapp, on the 
contrary, endeavoured to gather together again all the 
materials, even to the minutest parts, the pins and 
nails of the fabric of truth, which had been broken to 
pieces by that rationalist, and scattered to the winds, 
and out of them to construct again, with careful accu- 
racy, and in its old style, the building which had been 
pulled down; an operation which was in no way pleas- 
ing to us, who were bent on something fresh and new. 
De Wette, however, in his little work on “ Beligion 
and Theology,” a work breathing a youthful inspiration’, 
placed before our view a new theological structure 
corresponding to our wishes, and guided us to an 
sesthetico-symbolical apprehension of the contents of 
Scripture, under which the most incomprehensible 
and the most marvellous things in the Bible became 
irradiated with the splendour of great and eternal 
ideas. Indeed, we now believed that we had won back 
again, in an ennobled form, that which had been torn 
from us ; and only for the first time, at a later period, 
discovered the delusion by which we had been misled. 

Ich mischte mich mit in den streit ; 

Doch, ach ! ich hab’ihn nicht geschlielitet.” 

(I fell into a time of confusion ; the unity of the faith was destroyed. , I, 
too, mixed myself up with this struggle — in vain ! 1 have not settled it). — T r. 

1 The philosophy of Fries stands between that of Kant and Schelling, and 
combines the main principles of both. He died in 1843 . — Tr. 


60 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


The biblical histories remained, even according to this 
symbolical way of interpreting them, the same as the 
vulgar rationalism had affirmed them to be, viz., only 
legends and myths; and the “great ideas” which we 
derived from them were none other than those of the 
common rational consciousness, to the attaining of 
which a more convenient and a shorter way was to 
be found than by that of searching the Scriptures. I 
know none among my friends who might be regarded 
as having remained steadfast at the position we then 
with joyful satisfaction reached, except the true and 
amiable Dr Franke, who died as Professor of Philosophy 
at Postock. 

Student-life at Halle was at that time, and partly, 
at least, is still, the old boisterous, wild student-life, 
developing itself in “canon-firing” and “storming,” 
with “boxing-matches” and “ birch- wood duels .” 1 It 
is true, indeed, that there had then begun, in connec- 

1 Schaff thus describes the old student-life of Germany : — “ The students 
spend from two to five hours every day in the lecture-rooms of the univer- 
sity hall, and the rest of the time in reading and writing at home, or in 
intercourse with their fellow-students. The maj ority, especially the “ F oxes,” 
as the freshmen are called, join one of the clubs or associations for social 
enjoyment, after true students’ fashion. The members generally wear, or 
used to wear, peculiar colours on their caps, flags, and breast-bands, are 
regularly organized, and meet on special days at a particular inn or private 
room. There they sit round oblong tables, in the best of humour, drinking, 
smoking, and singing, at the top of their clear strong voices, “ Gaudeamus 
igitur,” or “ Wasist des Deutschen Vaterland,” or “ Freiheit, die ichmeine,” 
or “ Es Zogen drei Bursche wohl ueber den Rhein,” &c. They discuss the 
merits of their professors and sweethearts ; they consult about a serenade to 
a favourite teacher, or about a joke to be practised upon some sordid 
“ Philister” or landlord ; they make patriotic speeches on the prospects of 
the German Fatherland ; they pour out their hearts in an unbroken succes- 
sion of affection and merriment, pathos and humour, wit and sarcasm, pun 
and taunt ; they smoke and puff, they sing, and laugh, and talk till midnight, 
and feel as happy as the fellows in Auerbach’s cellar in Goethe’s ‘ Faust.’” 
This rude state of things is, however, happily passing away, and the more 
serious among the students keep entirely aloof from such scenes. The 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


61 


tion with the “ Teutonia/’ 1 a reformation of the rude 
manners of former times, hut the progress of this change 
was as yet very slow. This will appear manifest when 
I mention that one of the most able and highly-gifted 
of the students at that time in Halle, the afterwards 
celebrated Carl Immermann, was treated one evening 
with the horsewhip (Hetzpeitsche), by the verdict of 
the conclave of the seniors of that coterie, merely because 
he had the courage to lift his voice against the insuffer- 
able terrorism which the Teutonians took the liberty 
of exercising over the whole of the students of the 
university, and their actions. Those who kept them- 
selves farthest aloof from this bullying manner which 
was then prevalent, were for the most part such as had 
returned from the war of liberation, and had learned 
during that struggle the earnestness of life. They 
scorned the mask of heroism, because they felt them- 
selves in possession of the reality. Among such 
students one met, if not universally, at least generally, 
with those who gave themselves to diligent study 
in the various sciences; and to them, also, especially 
belonged the merit of raising to a higher and nobler 
elevation the aims and ambitions of the students in 
connection with the so-called “ Burschenschaft.” 2 The 
fellowship among the students, and their festival pomp 
on occasions, was conducted, perhaps, in the old way, 

present generation of students is a more refined class of men ; “ they have 
exchanged the gauntlet for a pair of kids, the sword or rapier for a riding- 
whip or walking-stick ; and it is no more an honour to besot one’s-self with 
beer and tobacco, and to provoke duels.” — T r. 

1 Name of one of the students’ clubs. — T r. 

2 Students’ club or association, formed for the purpose of “ realising the 
patriotic ideals which had been awakened in the German nation by the 
successful war of independence.” The “ Landsmannschaft ” was an older 
association of a similar character. The Governments have now condemned 
these associations as hotbeds of political agitation. Tr. 


62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

but tbeir spirit and significance were no more what they 
had formerly been. It was no longer a mere love of 
companionship, or a desire for empty exhibitions, that 
animated them, but a true spirit of patriotism. The 
affair of duelling, hitherto controlled by a company of 
unrestrained swaggerers, was brought under regulation, 
placed under a court of honour, and ultimately sublimated 
into a sort of Ordeal. The mass of the students belong- 
ing to that rude class, though not by any means all at 
once extirpated, saw themselves more and more distinctly 
branded with the mark of dishonour, and their ribald 
songs began to be altogether silenced before the saying 
which was now rising in estimation as the motto of a 
new party: “Frisch, frei, frohlich und fromm” (lively, 
free, happy and pious). 

Along with the general students’ clubs there was 
also formed a large number of literary societies and 
associations for debating in the Latin language. In 
one of these, of which I was a member, the theology of 
Schleiermacher , 1 which was at that time engaging the 


1 Bom at Breslau in 1768; died in 1834. His parents were of the reli- 
gious sect called Moravians or United Brethren. In one of his minor 
writings, Neander thus describes the peculiar characteristic of Schleier- 
macher’s religious teaching, and the extraordinary impression his “ Reden 
ueber Religion” (Discourses on Religion, 1799) produced at the time of 
their publication : — “ Those who at that time belonged to the rising genera- 
tion, will remember with what power this book influenced the minds of the 
young, being written in all the vigour of youthful enthusiasm, and bearing 
■witness to the neglected undeniably religious element in human nature. 
That which constitutes the peculiar characteristic of religion, viz., that it 
is an independent element in human nature, had fallen into oblivion by 
the one-sided rational or speculative tendency, or a one-sided tendency to 
absorb it in ethics. Schleiermacher had touched a note which, especially 
in the minds of youth, could not but continue to sound everywhere. Men 
were led back into the depth of their heart, to perceive here a divine draw- 
ing which, when once called forth, might lead them beyond that which the 
author of this impulse had expressed with distinct consciousness.” His 
theological system is fully developed in his “ Der Chris tliche Glaube,” first 


THE UNIVERSITY — HALLE. 


63 


attention of many, was the subject with us of much 
discussion. There were some who could recognise in 
this glowing meteor which had appeared nothing else 
than a pantheistic wandering star, which was more 
portentous of danger than the rationalism of Weg- 
scheider. On the other hand, there were others who 
felt themselves constrained to speak of him in language 
of unbounded praise, as a new reformer of evangelical 
theology. Certain it is, however, that his enthusiasm 
for the Person of Christ produced an indelible impres- 
sion on our minds. But whether there was any one 
of us who had possession of Ariadne's thread to guide 
us through Schleiermacher’s dialectics is, it must be 
confessed, quite another question. 

published in 2 vols. in 1821-22. While the influence of his writings on 
the intellect of Germany was, and still is, exceedingly great, it was far sur-.. 
passed by that which was exercised by his eloquence as a pulpit orator, 
and by the simplicity and piety of his personal character, over all he came 
in contact with. — T r. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


FTER the course of two years I left Halle for Jena . 1 



In the last month of my residence at Halle I 
preached to a neighbouring village congregation, on 
one occasion in the presence of quite a crowd of my 
fellow-students, who had assembled to hear me for the 
purpose of criticising. They approved of my bold per- 
formance, pronouncing it “ wohl bestanden ” (well 
done) ; but the shame still suffuses my cheeks when I 
think of that first effort at a sermon. 

The principal attractions which led me to Jena were 
Fries among the philosophers, and Schott among the 
theologians. I confess, however, that the nature of 
student-life at Jena also exercised a material influence 
over the choice I now made. At that time academic- 
life at Jena had unfolded itself into a form altogether 
of the fairest and purest character. This town, sur- 
rounded by well- wooded heights, is beautifully situated 

1 “ To maintain an intellectual contest with the new electoral house, and 
with the University of Wittenberg, then suspected of being possessed of a 
Calvinistic devil, and to constitute a fortress for genuine Lutheranism in 
general, the University of Jena (in the Grand-Duchy of Saxe- Weimar), with 
a charter from the Emperor and a blessing from Heaven, was founded 
(1548-58) by the sons of John Frederic, who in troublous times confided in 
the future.” — Hase. During the session of 1868-69, this university was 
attended by 432 students in all, under the care of 62 professors and 
teachers. — T r. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


65 


on the hanks of the river Saale. As I entered it, the 
scene of youthful activity, animated and cheerful, yet 
restrained within due bounds, which met my view and 
greeted my ears in the public market-place, seemed 
abundantly to confirm my opinion as to student-life 
in Jena. Here I saw the students in great numbers, 
clothed in the costume of the German coat and the 
plumed velvet cap, or in the plain linen blouse worn 
while taking exercise, walking to and fro singing merry 
songs, or engaged in cheerful conversation with one 
another. And when I asked one of them to show me 
the street where lodgings were provided for me, he 
saluted me with a hearty Du 1 (thou), took up and 
carried my knapsack whether I would or not, and 
accompanied me to my dwelling, remarking to me 
by the way how very costly it was to live in Jena. 
And so indeed I found it in a short time to he, 
and had great reason to he on my guard, lest from 
that cause my sojourn there should come to a sudden 
termination. 

As a matter of course, without delay I entered into 
the “holy brotherhood ” of the “German Burschen- 
schaft,” in which I very soon had the honour of being 
promoted to a post of responsibility. And even at the 
present day, when in thought I place myself again in 
the midst of those scenes of youthful, active, and 
boisterous life, there is reproduced within me some- 
thing of that solemn and elevating impression which 
the first general meeting of the Burschenschaft, con- 
vened for the purpose of admitting new associates, gave 
rise to. The spacious, well-lighted hall, decorated 
with the insignia of the society, and filled in every part 

1 This form of expression among the Germans implies familiarity and 
affection. It is employed by near relatives in addressing one another. — T r. 


66 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


with a large, dense mass of young men, all full of hope, 
the representatives of a new era to our Fatherland, as 
we thought ourselves to be ; before us, on a platform, 
the oblong table, over which was spread a black-red- 
and-yellow covering, and on it naked swords placed on 
each other in the form of a cross, and also the register 
of the transactions of the Bund ; and behind it the 
chosen twelve who constituted the committee, all of 
them being decorated with the Iron Cross of Honour, 
which they had won in^the war of liberation ; and 
in the midst of them the president, over whose chair 
was suspended the German flag ; and then the proceed- 
ings of the meeting commenced by the whole multitude 
of 800 singing with loud, clear, sonorous voices, accom- 
panied by the orchestra, the favourite animating song 
of the Bund, “Sind wir vereint zur guten Stunde 
and after this the president's energetic address to the 
new members, followed by their taking the usual oath, 
that they would observe the ancient, holy, honourable, 
knightly customs of the Fathers, and the laws and 
principles of the Bund ; — all this, how could it be 
otherwise than that it should highly excite one newly 
arrived amid such scenes, and irresistibly hurry along 
his youthful imagination, and elevate him, as it were, 
into an ideal world of enthusiasm ? 

And, indeed, the proceedings of the Burschenschaft 
at that time were not mere idle show, and boyish flash- 
ing eccentricities. It was enthusiasm, it is true, which 
animated them, but such enthusiasm, although the 
students themselves were but half conscious of it, as 
had in it much of the beautiful and the noble striving 
after outward realisation. The society was pervaded 
by a subtle penetrating atmosphere, which was fuller 
of elements worthy of a careful fostering hand than 


THE UNIVERSITY JENA. 


67 


of those which tended to relentless destruction, such as 
soon after developed themselves. If this had not been 
the case, how would enlightened men, and men of 
mature minds, such as E. M. Arndt, Schleiermacher, 
Luden, and many others, have attached themselves to 
it ? In the movements of the students there was mani- 
fest a moral earnestness wrestling with the traditional 
rudeness of academic life; a more ideal contemplation 
of the importance of life, with the Philistine 1 narrow- 
ness of all pig-tail and dung-hill cock society; a more 
extensive German patriotism, with the exclusive spirit 
of the Landsmannschaft ; and at the same time a felt 
need for a positive faith, with the old negative ration- 
alistic aims of those days. It is true the object 
which these enthusiasts were striving to attain hovered 
before them as yet more or less only in the distant 
obscurity of mist and cloud ; yet this only served to 
strengthen the longing aspirations with which they 
stretched forth toward it. It was a spiritual “ Argo- 
nautic expedition” for a golden fleece, the glory of 
which we had some faint apprehension of, but could 
not describe — an expedition in which poetry, the 
companion of the Orphean lyre, did not fail us, so 
that the flame of our inspiration did not want the 
nourishing oil. 

The student-spirit which then ruled us showed 
itself also in the manner in which we made choice 
of the teachers under whose instructions we placed 
ourselves. Old John Philip Gabler, the learned dis- 

1 A name given by the students to all tradesmen and others not belong- 
. ing to the university. The whole system or world of Illuminism was also 
called the “ Philisterwelt ” (the world of Philistines) ; and the students of 
this period of the renovation never wearied in pouring contempt upon all 
the principles and aims by which that world was governed, and holding 
them up to ridicule. — T r. 


68 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


ciple of Eichhorn 1 and Griesbach , 2 was esteemed by us 
who were theologians, not only on account of his hon- 
ourable, upright German character, but above all, and 
specially, because he was wont to speak of the moral 
sublimity and dignity of Christ with a reverence 
scarcely to be distinguished from devotion, and thereby 
he met the deepest want of our souls. We, dreaming 
of freedom, willingly indulged him when he cut in 
pieces for us the fetters of Church symbols by which 
we were restrained. But his superficial jejune ration- 
alism, which sought to explain all the miracles of the 
Bible on mere natural principles ( e.g . the transfigura- 
tion of Christ was explained as only a thunder-storm, 
the multiplying of the loaves as the obtaining of a 
supply which had been hid in the store of some trader, 
the resurrection of Jesus as merely His awakening out 
of a death-like sleep), was repulsive to us, and afforded 
us only a compassionate laugh, or made us shrug our 
shoulders at his naivete and folly. 

In spite of his awkward and unsociable manner, 
which gave occasion to the youthful students who were 
fond of fun to pass many harmless jokes upon him, 
Henry August Schott, the well-known and very cele- 
brated editor of a revised edition of the Text of the New 
Testament, and of a most masterly Latin translation 
of it, far excelled Gabler in his influence over us. By 
his kindness of disposition, and his truly quiet, unas- 
suming manner, together with his erudition, he gained 
our affection and love in the same degree in which he 
impressed us by his deep and extensive knowledge, 

1 Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, Professor of Biblical Literature at Gott- 
ingen, -where he succeeded Michaelis in 1788. He died in 1827. — Tr. 

2 Griesbach was Professor of Theology at the University of Jena. He 
was distinguished for his Critical Edition of the Text of the New Testament, 
which was first published at Halle in 1774-75. He died in 1812. — Tr. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


69 


and his fine classical taste. But he was yet the more 
attractive to us by reason of his taking up a position of 
hostility to the platitudes of the then prevailing form of 
doctrinal belief. As a believer in the supernatural, he 
recognised the fact of a supernatural revelation, spoke 
of Jesus, with the greatest reverence, as the “ God- 
man/’ and resolutely rejected all doubts cast upon the 
doctrine of His literal resurrection from the dead. 
And yet his belief in the Bible teachings was limited, 
and he did not deny that his judgment was not yet 
so wholly emancipated from the theological tendencies 
of the times, as that he could lay aside the vaulting- 
pole of the doctrine of accommodation, wherewith to 
help himself over many things “ altogether too won- 
derful in the Book.” There pulsated in him also 
no vein of mysticism, and so it happened that many 
deeply excited thinkers complained of the “ fatigue ” 
which they often experienced while listening to his 
lectures. 

The men we enthusiastically admired, and that 
because they came nearest to the circle of our society, 
and in many respects also to the circle of our ideas, 
were the historian Luden and the philosopher Fries, 
whom we have already mentioned. The latter of these 
cast a spell over us by the charm, the freshness, and 
the elegance of his lectures, but principally by the fire 
of his German patriotism, which glowed through his 
words. If any one understood how to fire the youthful 
mind with an enduring enthusiastic love of Fatherland, 
it was he; and that so much the more, since his en- 
thusiasm sometimes, like our own, was very generally 
pervaded by a high religious strain. The religious 
element in his philosophy, however, limited itself only 
to an aesthetic delight in the eternally Beautiful and 


70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

Sublime, discerned by kindred sentiment in the actual 
world. But he delighted us by his poetic warmth, and 
afforded us the opportunity, in his fluent vagueness, of 
always attributing to him that which was pleasing to 
ourselves. Perhaps only a few of us sufficiently pene- 
trated the system of the subjective philosophy, as not 
to suppose him enraptured as well with Bible Christi- 
anity as with the Sublime in the actual world, and 
to see that what he called Faith was only subjective 
sincerity of conviction, which was bound to no posi- 
tive objective truth. 

But that by which Fries principally won our hearts 
was the fraternal relation into which he entered with 
us. Not only did he condescend to deliver to us a 
course of public lectures on our student-motto, “ Frisch, 
frei, frohlich, fromm ! ” but he also took the deepest in- 
terest in all the arrangements and proceedings of our 
Burschenschaft. Our statutes were submitted to his 
inspection, and he revised them with as great earnest- 
ness and care as if they had been fundamental laws of 
the State. He helped us to settle, on a basis of firm 
principle, the subject of duelling, and sketched out for 
us the rules for the regulation of the court of arbi- 
tration, and the “ Ehrengericht .” 1 He even applauded, 
at least from his window, the foolery — often enough 
quite too scandalous, though not altogether senseless — 
which was not seldom carried on in the public market- 
place. We even actually thought that he saw so much 
of the realisation of his idea of a “ better world,” from 
the mad masquerade in which, after we had been 
excited by Oken’s Free Journal, the “ Isis/’ and its 
vignette, we made use of a series of piquant tableaux 

1 A jury of students, established for the purpose of peacefully settling all 
quarrels that might arise, without having recourse to duelling. — Tn. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


71 


vivants, satirically to expose to the laughter of the 
public the pig -tail and Philistine worlds, as well 
as the affectation of democracy that then began to 
prevail. 

It was also Fries who, before all others, helped to 
originate and give effect to the idea' of the Wartburg 
Festival 1 in 1817, which was to many so disastrous. I 
confess that at this day I look back upon that festival 
only with pure joy. In it that high tone of patriotic 
feeling, that religious excitement and joyful expectation 

1 At the instance of the Burschenschaft of Jena an invitation was ad- 
dressed to the students of the German universities to assemble at the 
Wartburg on 18th October, to celebrate the Tricentenary of the Reformation, 
and at the same time also the recent deliverance of Germany from the French 
domination. On the appointed day, 500 students and some of the professors, 
prominent among whom was Dr Fries, assembled in the market-place of 
Eisenach, and marched in solemn procession to the old castle of the Wart- 
burg. There, after singing the great national hymn, “ Ein feste Burg,” a 
sermon was preached by Riemann, Knight of the Iron Cross won at Waterloo, 
one of the theological students of Jena, and the whole service was concluded 
by prayer and the singing of the German Te Deum, “Nun danket alle Gott.” 
The whole assembly then partook together of a common meal, at which 
patriotic speeches were delivered and enthusiastic toasts given. The even- 
ing was spent in singing and gymnastic exercises in the market-place of 
Eisenach, and in social hilarity. But, unfortunately for the reputation of 
the Burschenschaft, a number of students assembled at a late hour on the 
Wartenberg, opposite the Wartburg, and there made a bonfire, and cast into 
it twenty-eight obnoxious books and pamphlets, together with a bodice, a 
cue, and a corporal’s staff, “ symbols of the old-fashioned pedantry and 
tyranny of Germany.” This act was regarded in high quarters as a political 
offence. It was looked upon as the symptom of a revolutionary spirit, and 
as revealing the political tendency of the Burschenschaft, which henceforth 
fell under suspicion. In 1819 the Hofrath von Kotzebue was murdered 
by Carl Ludwig Sand, a half insane fanatic student of Jena, and member of 
the Burschenschaft. This was regarded, though without any evidence, as 
the result of a general revolutionary conspiracy among the students ; and 
therefore, on 20th September of that year, the German Diet abolished the 
Burschenschaft, many of the prominent members of which suffered im- 
prisonment and exile. Though legally abolished, howeverj the society still 
secretly exists in the two societies that have sprung out of it, viz., the 
Arminia, which favours constitutional monarchy, and the Germania , which 
is of a republican character. See Schaff’s Universities of Germany. — Tr. 


72 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHEll. 


of a better future both for society and the State which 
then animated the youth of Germany shortly after the 
war of liberation, reached a development of the fairest 
and most promising character. 

The assembling of the students at the Wartburg, at 
least in its main intent, appeared as a worthy sequel to 
that gathering of the students around Luther which 
took place at Wittenberg in 1 5 1 7. A German-Christian 
regeneration of the Fatherland in the State, the Church, 
and the family, was the ideal which swelled our bosoms, 
though it was only dimly seen by us in vague, fanciful 
images, enveloped in mist. No doubt the elements 
which, in a very wonderful manner, mingled themselves 
together in that great spiritual seething-kettle, stood 
greatly in need of being purified. For I do believe 
that only a few were at all distinctly conscious of the 
ground on which they felt themselves so devoutly 
interested, filled with such ecstacy, and so deeply 
moved at the general Communion in the town church 
in Eisenach, which formed the solemn crisis of the 
whole festival. 1 Religion and patriotism, asceticism 
and the free spirit of the Burschenschaft, romanticism 
and politics, and all manner of earthly and heavenly 
thoughts and affections, mingled themselves together 
therein. The noble ingredients, without question, were 
as yet only in an embryotic and impure condition. 

As for the rest, in the speeches, the toasts, and 
the resolutions in which we breathed forth our love 
of freedom, not the slightest trace of anything of a 
revolutionary tendency was perceptible. We were 
enthusiastic for a united, free Germany. We dreamed 
also of a new German emperor, whom we supposed 

1 After the celebration at the Wartburg, the procession returned to 
Eisenach to attend divine service there in the afternoon. — T r. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


73 


we had discovered at one time in onr high patron, 
Carl August, at another in the King of Prussia, and 
again in some one of the other German princes. But 
the thought of overturning the throne of any of our 
German rulers was far distant from us. Yea, the 
numerous hand amongst us of brave men, who had 
come from the war of liberation decorated with 
Orders, among whom were also counts and barons, 
thought that patriotism, and respectful submission and 
fealty due to hereditary princes, were inseparable ; and 
these men took the lead at the University. And even 
at the auto da fe of the books which took place at 
midnight at the Wartenberg, which, moreover, was only 
an intermezzo and an impromptu exploit of a very few, 
nothing was done or said by which that principle could 
in the remotest degree be injured. Enough. Every 
one who took part in the Wartburg Festival will 
always remember it, as one of them has expressed it, 
“as a May-day of his youth !” 

Who among all who were companions in that festival, 
do not see still standing before them their friends 
Riemann, Sieversen, Count Keller, Frommann, Leo, and 
other types of the youth of Germany ? And among 
them also was the unfortunate Carl Ludwig Sand, 
in whom the Christian-ethical enthusiasm, which we 
all, to a certain degree, participated in along with him, 
increased to an ever-to-be-lamented fanatical degree. 
I knew him long before the delusion came upon him. 
On one occasion, when on a journey, he entertained me 
as his guest for several days at Erlangen. I cannot 
forget the pleasant hours which I then spent with him 
there. He was a man of an upright mind, animated 
by Christian principle, deeply moved toward all that 
was noble and beautiful, and grieved at heart on 
E 


74 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


account of the moral condition of the Fatherland. At 
the time of the Wartburg celebration, his dark eye 
already, it is true, burned with a fire which occasioned 
much anxiety on his account to those who were more 
narrowly observing him. But a deed such as that 
which he perpetrated two years afterwards, no one 
would have believed the youth who was striving in all 
points after the highest moral perfection, at all capable 
of. It is true they did not know that, in the man 
whom he afterwards devoted to death 1 — in the name 
of God, as in his madness he thought — he saw the 
chief betrayer and corrupter of the morals of his Ger- 
man people, whom he warmly loved above all others. 
The ladies and gentlemen who dipped their pocket- 
handkerchiefs in Sand’s blood on the scaffold at Mann- 
heim, were as much deluded as he was. But they who 
in silence mourn over him beside his grave, as over 
one of the noblest of the sons of Germany, who was 
ruined by the philosophy which confounds the mere 
subjective sincerity of conviction (Ueberzeugungstreue) 
with Christian faith, find themselves in the right, and 
stand in the truth. 

I pass by in silence the sad fact that, soon after the 
time of the Wartburg Festival, the pure idealistic spirit 
which then moved and excited us, degenerated into a 

1 Hofrath von Kotzebue, a very unprincipled man. He was bated by all 
the liberals as a Russian spy and traitor of Germany. Sand stabbed him 
to death with a dagger, in his own house at Mannheim, in March 1819. 
“While his worthless victim was expiring in his own dwelling, Sand 
rushed to the street, assembled a crowd, and exclaimed : ‘ Hurrah for my 
German Fatherland, and all those Germans who desire to promote the 
welfare of pure humanity!’ He then made an unsuccessful attempt at 
suicide, hoping by means of a double crime to open a bloody path for Ger- 
man liberty, and thus to immortalise himself as a second Arnold of Win- 
kelried. Having been brought to trial for murder, he was condemned to 
death, and executed by the sword on 20th May 1819, near Mannheim, 
before a great concourse of people ” (Schaff). — Th. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


75 


political power, which aimed at effecting changes in 
national legislation, and, falling under the control of 
demagogues, manifested here and there even a revolu- 
tionary tendency. The influence which poisoned the 
harmless poetic enthusiasm of the Wartburg came 
chiefly from the south of the Fatherland. Emissaries, 
particularly from Giessen and Heidelberg, appeared at 
J ena, who, for the first time, infused into our ideas of the 
Burschenschaft, which were from the beginning very lofty 
indeed, but indefinite and general, floating before the 
mind in undefined vagueness, a real and positive aim. 
And this definite aim became afterwards well enough 
known from the acts of the inquisition by the Govern- 
ment. I thank God, and not indeed in the spirit of the 
Pharisee of old, that at the time when this degeneracy 
in the spirit of the Burschenschaft took place, my 
residence at the University had already terminated. 

The echo of the great Wartburg Festival sounded so 
long within us in undiminished distinctness, that it 
secured at least the greatest number of us against the 
danger of being misled by the “ Schwarzen” (the black 
party), as the extreme party then called themselves. 
But let no one have too high an opinion of the pious 
earnestness of the youth at that time attending the 
University of Jena. The first words of their motto, 
“ Frisch, frei, und frohlich,” were always greatly more 
applicable as a description of their character than the 
last word 1 of it. If everything that bordered on what 
was low and base was banished from their circle, yet, 
along with the constant drilling of the “ Wehrschaft,” 
formed from among the students, and commanded by 
officers who had been engaged in the war of liberation, 
and the practice, of the “ noble gymnastics,” the old 

1 Viz., “ fromm,” i.e. “ pious.” 


76 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


habits continued. Duelling, though less frequently — 
masquerade exhibitions in the market-place, and what 
not — went on as merrily as ever. Yea, along with the 
very imposing and solemn assemblies of the Bund, there 
continued amongst us also, in full splendour, the old 
traditional Lichtenhaine court, with its pot-valiant 
Duke Thus, its courts-martial, and its battery of cannon 
— a sport which, once upon occasion, Goethe , 1 as he 
walked past, saw to his great amusement. 

We had frequently the pleasure of meeting with this 
tall, stately, poet-hero. On one occasion he lingered 
a while in our midst, looking at the students engaged 
in gymnastic exercise, having dismounted from his 
carriage, which was drawn by two white horses ; and to 
this day I well remember the sonorous voice with which 
he gave expression to his astonishment at the sight of 
the swinging to and fro performed by a very skilful 
gymnast on the pole, in the following words : “ I am 
surprised! the young man is like an osier wand.” A 
deputation of the students once waited on him with 
the request that he would deliver to us lectures on 
literature or aesthetics. He received it in the most 
gracious manner, and after conversing for some time in 
a very friendly way with the students who were pre- 

1 Johann Wolfgang yon Goethe was horn at Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, in 
August 1749. After a course of somewhat desultory studies at different 
universities, he went to Wehnar (1775) on the invitation of the Prince, 
by whom he was elevated to the rank of privy-councillor (Geheiinrath) 
in 1779. He afterwards became a member of his government, but devoted 
himself to science, literature, and art. He is the author of numerous 
works, both in poetry and prose, all of them characterised by a decided 
superiority of thought and style. He has gained for himself the foremost 
place in German literature. He was, indeed, almost the creator of German 
literature, as his writings were the introduction of a new era. During 
his whole life he was in correspondence with the chief authors of the 
day, and in various ways exercised no small direct Influence on the literary 
labours of others. He died at Weimar in 1832 . — Tr. 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


77 


sent regarding the studies in which they were severally 
engaged, he dismissed them with the assurance that he 
would, “ata convenient time/’ gladly comply with their 
wish. That “ convenient time,” however, never came. 

I would have made as little progress in theology as 
in religion by my residence at the University of Jena, 
had I not by private studies sought to attain what the 
instructions of the professors failed to present. The 
exegetical lectures of the otherwise highly-honoured 
Schott were really after all of little significance to 
me, because they were devoid alike of enthusiasm 
and of penetrating thought. And in the homiletic 
and catechetical lectures of Dr Danz, I found only that 
which was self-evident, or what I already knew. The 
finely constructed, but rationalistic and empty, sermons 
of Marezoll created in me a dislike for the service of 
the Church, and drove me away from it ; and so nothing 
remained for me but to seek refuge from this spiritual 
famine in reading. Herder s work on “ The Spirit of 
Hebrew Poetry,” and my father’s book on “ The Spirit 
and Form of the Gospels,” and Kleuker s Apologetical 
writings, rendered me great service, ever to be re- 
membered by me with thankfulness. Besides these, I 
studied many portions of the “ Fathers,” read Schleier- 
macher’s “ Discourses on Beligion,” refreshed myself 
by perusing the pages of the “ Wandsbeck Messenger,” 1 

1 The “Wansbecker Bote,” a religious journal, edited by Matthew Claudius 
of Wandsbeck, a town in the duchy of Holstein, near Hamburg. “Claudius 
(1743-1815) ; Lavater, a sacred poet (1741-1801) ; and Stilling, a physician 
and religious writer, esteemed by the “ Pietists” of Germany (1740-1817), 
preserved a childlike piety in an age of prevailing scepticism, and proved 
in their persons and writings a blessing to thousands.” “ Claudius was a 
true son of Martin Luther, not in strength and zeal, it is true, but in child- 
like sense, in simple-hearted cheerfulness, in the cordial appropriation of 
the Divine Word in its wonderful unction and sweetness. His writings are 
no doubt the last German ones in which one is entitled to say that Luther’s 
spirit was breathing in them” ( Grundtvig ). — Tr. 


78 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


and drank full draughts from the living water-streams 
which flowed in sparkling copiousness from out of 
Luther’s works. I was not without friends who were 
associated with me in this earnest course of study. 
Among these I name before all others my brother 
Emil, who gave himself with great zeal to his studies, 
having few who were his equals in diligence. He had 
the good fortune, after leaving Jena, to carry on his 
studies under the care of Steudel and Flatt at Tubingen, 
and through his intercourse with friends, such as Louis 
Hofacker, and the poet Albert Knapp, Barth, Burck- 
hardt, and others of his own age, to be introduced into 
a full and deep appreciation of the theology of the 
heart . 1 

With pious thankfulness I look back on that brief 
period of my life which I spent at Jena as one in which 
my soul, delivered from every fetter by which it was 
. bound, learned to rise on the wings of faith to a higher 
and purer eleva/tioii. My heart, and my mind also, 
experienced at that time a material quickening, an 
expansion and advancement of their capability of appre- 
ciating spiritual conceptions. My conception (Ahnung) 
of the splendour of the life of faith gradually and gently 
formed itself into the experience of such a life ; and that 

1 “ Pectus est quod theologum tacit,” was NeandePs motto. Schleier- 
macher stood between two ages of German theology. He was the last in 
the generation of sceptics, and the first in the succession of believers. The 
new era introduced by him was one of awakened spiritual life. Theology 
began to be studied, not as a mere exercise of the understanding, but always 
as a sacred business of the heart. “ Powerful preachers arose, like Louis 
and William Hofacker, and the Krummachers, father, uncle, and son, who 
unfolded the plan of salvation, and led thirsting souls to fountains of living 
water. A new taste and zeal were awakened for sacred hymns, and Spitta, 
Knapp, and Bahrdt tuned their harps for new songs of Zion.” Neander’s 
motto became the guide to theologians, and the “ theology of the heart ” 
gradually began to take the place of that of the rationalism of the preced- 


THE UNIVERSITY — JENA. 


79 


which may be called the German- Christian principle, 
although it existed at that time only in very feeble 
intimations, and in an embryotic condition in the centre 
of the Burschenschaft, grew up into an actual exist- 
ence before me, and became the living reality which 
has accompanied me all my life long since then. No 
one therefore will laugh at the inexpressible sorrow with 
which, at the end of my academical curriculum, I left, 
in the company of my dear friends, the old Athens on 
the Saale. On the way to Dornburg, through the 
charming valley of the Saale, along which I had often 
wandered, I had frequently difficulty in refraining 
from weeping, in spite of the merry singing and the 
sounds of joy that echoed around me. Just before 
bidding farewell to my companions in Cunitz, one of 
them ventured, in the most harmless manner however, 
to joke about my weakness. This gave occasion to me 
to send to him to Jena the following quickly- written 
verses from Naumburg, where I found a lodging for 
that night : — 


DER AUSZUG AUS JENA. 1 

Kaum farbte der Morgen den Giebel am Haus, 

Da kuckte der Bursche zum Fenster hinaus: 

“ 0 Jena, du Werthe, nun geht es zu End, 

Gott weiss wie das Herze in Leibe mir brennt.” 

1 When Krummacher’s Autobiography was passing through the press in 
Germany, this poem, by some accident, could not be found for insertion in 
its proper place. The sheets were printed accordingly without it. It was 
afterwards discovered and forwarded to the Translator by the family of the 
deceased, for insertion in the English edition. It is here printed because it 
gives a very vivid idea of certain customs connected with student-life in 
Germany, and it affords a glimpse .also into the character of the youthful 
Krummacher. An English version of it will be found in the Appendix. — T r. 


80 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Er sprach’s und das Wasser zum Auge ihm drang, 

Da drohnte die Treppe — da halite der Gang — 
u Herr Bruder, pack’ auf ” und “ Ilerr Bruder, beiss’ ein, 
Und schmeckt es auch bitter, geschieden muss sein.” 

Und voller die Kammer, und voller der Gang, 

Und lauter das Rauschen, und wilder der Drang — • 

Den Ranzen nimmt Einer, und Einer den Stab — 

Dann larmend selbander die Treppe hinab. 

Und driiben am Markte, da hebt sich alsbald 
Ein Griissen, so rauh, wie ein Stiirmen im Wald. 

Doch sanftiglich schauten die Augen darein, 

Und helle mocht’ manches von Thranen auch sein. 

Drauf wogt’s durch die Gassen, geschlossen zu Reih’n, 

Es halite das Pflaster, es spriihte der Stein — 

Es brauste zum Himmel der Abschiedsgesang — 

Nur Einer schwieg stille beim rauschenden Klang. 

Manch Fensterlein klirrte, manch Aiigelein zag’ 

Sah heimlich durch Blumen dem Scheidenden nach. 
Manch Griissen stieg neckend von unten hinauf — 

Nur Einer schlug nimmer die Augen auf. 

Und rings an den Schenken, da hielten sie ein — 

Nur Einer verschmahte den wiirzigen Wein ; 

Bis dass er gekommen zum aussersten ITaus, 

Da fasst er den Becher, und leerte ihn aus — 

Und warf ihn hinab in die schaumende Well* — 

Da stiirzten die Thranen so gliihend und hell, 

Als sah er versinken sein Alles zur Fluth, 
u 0 Jena , Dich lassen , — wie bitter das thut /” 


CHAPTER YI. 

FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 

TTAVING returned to my home, I now regarded it 
as my first and most important duty to put my 
hands to the “ Christian-German Reformation of the 
Fatherland.” Those who originated and were carry- 
ing forward such a work expected everything from 
Gymnastics. A fantastic address, proceeding on this 
idea, appeared at this time in the Bernburg weekly 
journal. It called upon the young men of Anhalt to 
erect places for the practice of athletic exercises in 
their fathers’ gardens. This address gave rise to great 
and serious reflection among the citizens, and failed 
not to draw forth several public remonstrances of a 
very solemn nature ; while on the part of the more 
intelligent and those of a freer spirit, it only provoked 
ironical laughter and pleasantry, and, at the most, in- 
duced them to recommend to the enthusiasts a thought- 
ful moderation. A letter to the gymnast J ahn brought 
back the encouraging answer, “ Now, quick to the 
rally! Why does the grumbling of the old men trouble 
you? Let the dead bury their dead! In the fresh 
life of the young there are the germs of the new world 
growing up ! ” A witty, sarcastical poem, aimed at the 
“ Philistines,” raised the opposition to the whole move- 
ment to the highest pitch of excitement, and the whole 


82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

attempt at a reformation by such means ended, to the 
great grief of the society of gymnasts that had been 
gathered together within a short time, in their dis- 
solution as a body, and in the destruction of the 
bars and climbing-poles and other implements, which 
were intended as the symbols of the rise of a new and 
valiant race of Germans who would be worthy of their 
fathers. 

Instead of devoting myself to those “ bodily exer- 
cises,” which the apostle — certainly without any 
reference to the gymnasts — declares “ profit nothing,” 
I was diligently and seasonably employed, along with 
my companions who were to be examined with me, in 
preparatory studies for our approaching final examina- 
tion, with a view to our being admitted to the status 
of candidates. I passed the examination, on the whole, 
cum laude . Adhering, so far as I understood it, to the 
theological system and method of interpreting the 
Scriptures taught by De Wette, whose theology was 
based on the philosophy of Fries, I expounded the 
miracle of the multiplication of the loaves recorded in 
the Gospel of Matthew 1 (as that portion of Scripture 
had been assigned to me as the subject of a trial dis- 
course), as a symbol in which was mirrored forth the 
inexhaustible goodness of God toward all the needy 
and suffering children of men. This mode of interpret- 
ing the miracle was evidently pleasing to one of the 
examiners; but my father, who presided over the 
examination of the Anhalt consistory, interrupted my 
exegetical discussion with the question, Whether, then, 
I regarded the Gospel narrative as historically true, or 
as only allegorical? This question, which had never 
before, in the same form, pressed itself on my attention, 
1 Matt. XV. 32-38. 


FRANKFURT-ON -THE-M AINE. 


83 


filled me at once with perplexity and confusion. It 
was some time before I had the power of composing 
myself to answer that I did not at all deijy that the 
miracles of Jesus were true, but that I regarded their 
chief value as consisting in the religious and moral truths 
which they represented. But at the same moment 
when I thus answered, a light broke in upon my mind, 
convincing me how miserably this notion harmonized 
with my supposed belief in the historical verity of the 
miracles, and making it manifest to me that my whole 
Christianity consisted as yet more in undefined senti- 
ment than in firm conviction — more in the hazy vision 
of the imagination than in the possession of truth won 
as the result of warfare against error, or as gained from 
experience. 

Scarcely had I passed the ordeal of the theological 
examination — which I did creditably, indeed with 
honour, though at the same time not without the feel- 
ing of deep humiliation at my own imperfection — when 
my father received a letter from Dr Spiess, of Frankfurt- 
on-the-Maine, in which he inquired whether I had any 
inclination to occupy the situation of an ordained assist- 
ant preacher to the German Reformed congregation 
there, which had become vacant by the resignation of 
Herr Wilhelmi, who afterwards became Bishop of 
Nassau. I at once accepted the offered situation, and 
after a few days set out on my journey to Frankfurt. 
There I preached my trial discourse, which was ap- 
proved of more perhaps on account of my open, frank 
manner, and my lively style of delivery, than on 
account of the richness and depth of the truths set 
forth in the sermon itself. I was thereafter unani- 
mously chosen by the presbytery of that congregation. 
I then returned to Bernburg, that I might there undergo 


84 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the second examination “ pro ministerio,” and, on my 
passing it, be immediately ordained. 

All this happened within a few weeks. And now T , 
at the beginning of the year 1819, I hastened once 
more by Erfurt, Eisenach, Fulda, and Gelnhausen, 
with joyful expectation, and painting to myself a 
blessed future, to the old free town of Frankfurt. 
There I received from all, but especially in the house 
of Dr Spiess, the most hearty and friendly welcome. 
On the following Sabbath, amid a great conflict of 
inward emotion, I entered for the first time on the 
functions of my sacred office. I was charged with the 
duty of preaching the afternoon sermon in the German 
Deformed Church ; and besides, in the event of any- 
thing preventing either of the two pastors from con- 
ducting the public worship of the forenoon, I was to 
supply their place. 

In Frankfurt I entered on a life which was in many 
respects new to me. This free city, forming,' as it 
were, a bond of union between Northern and Southern 
Germany, comprehended in itself not only all that was 
fitted to supply the outward conveniences and comforts 
of life which would be agreeable to a young man, par- 
ticularly in its surrounding scenes and in its delightful 
society, but also such as was fitted in some degree to 
awaken and to bring forth into more beneficial develop- 
ment whatever of the elements of education might still 
be slumbering within him. The spirit of trade has 
never gained in it, as in many other commercial towns, 
the predominance over the intellectual and spiritual in- 
terests of man. Not only did the rich old nobility, who 
at all times have had their residences in Frankfurt, and 
who, mindful of their motto, “ Noblesse oblige,” had con- 
secrated their leisure to the cultivation of the fine arts 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


85 


and of the sciences, contribute to this result ; but’ also 
the historical reminiscences connected with the founding 
of the city by Charles the Great. The affection for it 
first manifested by the emperors, Ludwig the Pious (St 
Louis), and Ludwig the German, who raised it — as the 
old palace, the Saalhof 1 yet hears witness — to be the 
capital of Austria, and made it their chief place of resi- 
dence ; and the crowning of the emperors there in later 
times, — the remembrance of all this gave to the inhabi- 
tants a certain tone of dignity, and a consciousness of 
superiority. 

What further helped to guard them against the 
hardening influences of materialism, and to enlarge 
their intellectual horizon, was, along with the con- 
stant influx of foreign tourists into this, the gate of 
the two hemispheres of Germany, the great number 
of scientific institutions and societies for the cultiva- 
tion of art of which the city then had to boast, and 
also its free form of government, which afforded to 
every citizen the opportunity of winning his way to 
the highest offices of State. Every one was thus 
stimulated by powerful motives to seek his intel- 
lectual advancement. Yea, even the seven years' 
domination of Napoleon, when the city was placed 
under the Prince-primate , 2 however greatly that state 
of things was detested by the citizens, had, upon the 
whole, a favourable influence on their general culture. 
During that period the old fortifications and town- 
walls were removed, and in their room there arose, as 
if under the hand of a magician, the most charming 
garden -ground and promenades. There were also 

1 The modem building on the site of the ancient palace of the Karlo- 
vingian emperors. — T r. 

2 i.e. of the Rhenish Confederation. The present “ constitution of the 
free city of Frankfurt ” was voted by the citizens in July 1816 . — Tr. 


86 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


removed many other old, dilapidated buildings, which 
had outlived their time, and thus the city was opened 
up on all sides and beautified. And how brilliant is 
the place which is filled in history by all the Dalbergs, 
those distinguished patrons and active promoters of 
literature and art ! Carl Theodor also is seen at that 
time worthily following the shining footsteps of his 
fame-crowned ancestors, so that no noble endeavour 
put forth in the region of intellectual activity failed of 
encouragement and support. In this way Frankfurt 
became enriched by the advent of many celebrated 
artists and men of science. After the Restoration in 
the year 1813, when Frankfurt again came into the 
possession of all its former rights and freedom, it 
received into it as a new, and at the same time favour- 
able, element in its general elevation, the German Diet, 
whose numerous members, for the most part men dis- 
tinguished for their intelligence and ability, did not 
take up so exclusive a place with reference to the 
citizens generally, as to prevent them from exercis- 
ing an intellectual influence upon them, and thereby 
widening the circle of their ideas and views. 

The various societies of different kinds into which I 
was now introduced, gave to my life in Frankfurt a 
very parti-coloured appearance. Naturally, chief among 
those with whom I had intercourse were the families 
which belonged to the congregation among whom I 
laboured, and some of whom, as the Neufvilles, Lutter- 
oths, Passavants, Lessings, de Barys, Bemuses, &c., like 
the old original families of the sister French- Walloon 
congregation, on account of their wealth and position, 
their solid intelligence, and their dignified manner, 
were reckoned among the patrician families of the first 
rank in Frankfurt. With delight do I look back to 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


87 


these, in every respect, excellent families, among whom 
was found a luxury conformable to their social rank, 
but yet without any ostentation, the finest etiquette 
without exclusiveness, and kindliness of disposition 
without formal stiffness. They manifested a lively 
interest in all literary and artistic excellence. For the 
most part, also, they took an active interest in all that 
concerned the Church. In later years, the celebrated 
geographer Fitter, who lived for a long time in the 
midst of them, once said to me that they always 
hovered before the eye of his memory, as presenting 
to him the very ideal of domestic and social life. 

But I mingled also in other societies besides, among 
which the prevailing tone was not less pleasing, but 
at the same time more cordial, more unrestrained, and 
freer. A circle of romantic poets, who achieved for 
themselves, however, less fame than one would have 
expected from the talents of those who composed it, 
received me as a companion into their midst. I en- 
joyed friendly fellowship with the celebrated romance 
and novel writer Doring, who was early removed by 
death; with Wilhelm Kilzer, the author of a poem 
on the town of Frankfurt, and other occasional pieces 
of poetry ; with the cabbalistic-theosophic philosopher 
Molitor j 1 with the amiable author of “ The Stories and 

1 A follower, to a great degree, of Baader of Munich, whose system of 
philosophy was closely allied to the philosophy of Jacob Boehme (died 
1624), “the shoemaker of Gorlitz.” MolitoFs system was also allied to the 
Cabbala which sprang out of the Oriental philosophy. The Cabbala is an 
expansion of the Masora, the system of biblical criticism of the Jews. The 
theoretical Cabbala consists of the transposition of letters, their resolution into 
numbers, the cause of a letter being written great or small, the reason of a 
consonant being written without a vowel, or a vowel without a consonant, 
the hidden meaning of words, vowels, and accents, &c.” The practical 
Cabbala is a sort of magic or black art, by which all manner of knowledge 
might be acquired. The Gabbalists deal in charms and incantations. — T r. 


88 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Legends of the Rhine,” Professor Nicolaus Vogt, whose 
heart, according to his last will and testament, lies 
buried at the foot of the Rat-tower 1 (Mausethurm) of 
Bingen. From him I learned to know the demon 
Fountains which then began to sparkle in the first 
manifestations of his Titanic genius, as they then 
appeared in his journal, the 44 Wage,” to the alarm 
of the whole town. I also became acquainted with 
Clemens Brentano, the writer of romances, the brother 
of Bettina. He once offered, with all seriousness, to 
meet the whole expense of the journey, if I would pro- 
ceed to Rome, and for six weeks attend the worship in 
St Peter’s, which he had no doubt would convert me 
to Catholicism. I thanked him that he had such a 
concern for my soul; whereupon he replied : 44 Till you 
Protestants pull down the chatter-box ” (“ Plapper- 
kasten ”)- — he meant the pulpit — 44 or, at least, throw 
it into the corner, where it ought to be, there is no 
hope of you.” I could only reply to him, 44 It is true, 
indeed, that our 4 Plapperkasten ’ stands greatly in the 
way of you Catholics.” 

Bettina had been at that time for eight years the 
Baroness Achim von Arnim, but was still remembered 
in Frankfurt as the highly-gifted maiden, who was 
wont to be spoken of by the people, in a harmless 
sense, however, as 44 die kleine tolle Brentano ” (the 
little mad Brentano). This name she received on 
account of her fantastic original genius, and her free, 
confiding manner. 

In the hospitable house of the genial aulic counsellor, 
Berly, who was at that time chief editor of the . 44 Ober- 

1 The Binger-see, or Hole of Bingen, is a rocky bar over which the Rhine 
descends with great impetuosity. A little way above it, on a rock in the 
middle of the stream, is the Mausethurm, an edifice of the Middle Ages, of 
renown in legendary lore. — T r. 


FRANKFUET-ON-THE-MAINE. 


89 


postamtszeitung,” I had frequent opportunities of being 
introduced to the acquaintance of persons of intellectual 
eminence. Those who passed for literary celebrities in 
Frankfurt, not omitting even Elise Burger — for whom 
this constant patron of those unfortunate poets who, 
according to Schiller’s “ Theilung der Erde,” 1 find 
at length, because they come too late, after the earth 
has been divided, only a little place in an imagi- 
nary heaven, provided at a later period of her life a 
quiet death-bed in an hospital — were usually found 
assembled at his musical soirees and conversaziones. 
The saloon of the amiable Hadermann, the Counsellor 
of Education, was also a favourite resort for those who 
were enthusiastic friends of the Muses and men of 
worth. At his flourishing school for the sons of the 
higher classes I first began, and continued for two 
years, my labours as a teacher. The attractive influ- 
ence, however, principally emanated from the lady of 
the house, who, in her extensive reading, her lively 
spirit, her sound judgment, and her remarkable gift of 
imparting information, possessed a magic wand, which 
quickly aroused the minds of all around her to lively 
activity, and compelled them to draw on the treasury 
of their best thoughts. To many young men of talent 
she became a gold-digger, bringing out that talent to 
the light of day, and leading it into the way of future 
development. Even Peter von Cornelius 2 did not 

1 “ Division of the Earth.” The poem describes how Jupiter divided 
the earth among different classes. While this was going on, the poet was 
living in dream-land, and missed his share. Jupiter thus consoles him — 

« Was thun ?” spricht Zeus, “ die Welt ist weggegeben 
Der Herbst, die Jagd, der Markt ist niclit inelir mein. 

Willst du in meinem Himmel mit mir leuen, 

So oft du kommst,'er soil dir offen sein.” — T r. 

2 Son of the inspector of the Picture Gallery at Diisseldorf, was born in 

F 


90 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


hesitate to ascribe it, for the most part, to the animat- 
ing influences which she exerted over him, that at one 
time, when he was on the point of despairing of himself 
and his art, he did not succumb to the trial. And 
as an evidence of this, he bequeathed to his amiable 
patroness, as a gift of thanks, his original drawings in 
illustration of Goethe’s “ Faust, ” and also many other 
valuable sketches from his master-hand. 

Now and then the soirees held at Hadermann’s were 
honoured by the presence of the distinguished deputies 
to the German Diet, who, on such occasions, seemed 
willing to lay down their official gravity at the feet of 
the Muses and Graces, and with poets and artists and 
singers, to proclaim with enthusiasm their admiration 
of Goethe, Jean Paul, Mozart, Beethoven, Yandyk, 
Memling, Canova, Danneker, and Thorwaldsen. 

Among those children of the world, intoxicated with 
the love of genius, one Dr Gontgen was generally pre- 
sent, greatly to my comfort. He was from the heart a 
pious man, though altogether of the middle-age mystic 
stamp. He had imbibed the thoughts and ideas of 
Eckard , 1 Tauler, Suso, and Buysbroek, and was at the 


1787. His father died when he was still a youth. Amid many difficulties 
he rose to the highest eminence as a painter, and, in association with such 
men as Overheck, effected a regeneration in German art. His first great 
work was a series of designs illustrative of Goethe’s “ Faust,” which at once 
gained him a high reputation. He also prepared elaborate designs to 
illustrate the “ Niebelungen Lied” and “ Gerusalemme Liberata.” He 
painted also the frescoes in the Glyptothek at Munich. — T r. 

1 Master Eckard, the first of the German philosophical mystics, died about 
1329. His writings produced a deep impression on the age. He was followed 
in the 14th and 15th centuries by like-minded mystics, whose works con- 
tributed greatly to the revival of genuine piety among the people. Fore- 
most among these were Tauler of Strasburg (died 1361), who was a man of 
deep humility and fervent piety, some of whose works have recently been 
published in English ; Suso, called also Amandus (died 1365) ; and John 
Ruysbroek (died 1381), called Doctor Ecstaticus. — T r. 


FRANKFUKT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


91 


same time a diligent student of the Apocalypse, but not 
wholly free from abstruse notions and unsound ideas. 
He interposed a religious tone into the conversations of 
the guests, which, however, according to the spirit of 
the times, bore on itself, for the most part, the stamp 
of Romanticism, rather than of biblical Christianity. 
Their religion frequently took no higher form than 
the confession of Faust, “ Call it Happiness ! Heart ! 
Love ! or God ! I have no name for it ! Feeling is 
everything/’ 1 etc. At a later period the good Gontgen 
allowed himself to be misled by the well-known fanatic 
or deceiver Proli, who gave himself out as the “ other 
Elias” spoken of by the prophet Malachi, 2 and follow- 
ing him to America, there shared in the lamentable 
ruin which overtook his sect and colony, and found his 
early grave. In spirit I lay an olive-branch on his 
tomb. His religious depth and warmth had a great 
share in the process of my enlightenment in the 
knowledge of that which I yet wanted before I could 
fully number myself among believing Christians. I 
sought him often in his own little chamber, up several 
flights of stairs, and seldom did I return home from 
those visits to him without being compelled, with a 
troubled and agitated conscience, to say to myself, 
“ In thy Christianity there is as yet no reality. It 
is an affair of the understanding and of the lips, but as 
yet there is no life !” 

The liveliest interest of the whole cultivated world 
of Frankfurt was taken up with the “ Museum,” which 
was then in its youthful vigour. I had the honour of 
seeing myself enrolled among the active members of it. 

1 “ Nenn’s Gliick ! Herz ! Liebe ! Gott ! 

Ich habe keinen Namen 

Dafiir ! Gefiihl ist alles.” 

2 MaL iv. 5. 


92 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACTIER. 


This excellent institution was under the management 
of the men who were most eminent in the various de- 
partments of science and art. Among the former — 
the men of science — I name Dr Kirchner, widely famed 
for his “ History of the City of Frankfurt,” and also 
the highly-gifted Dr Clemens. Among the latter — men 
distinguished in art — I name the organists Spohr and 
Guhr; the singing-master Schelbe, like them still well 
remembered in Frankfurt; and also the painter Passa- 
vant. 

Most of the numerous members of this institution, 
both ladies and gentlemen, assembled every fortnight 
to an exceedingly pleasant evening’s entertainment, 
which consisted in the exhibition of old and new speci- 
mens of sculpture, stucco-work, and painting ; in the 
performance of magnificent pieces of classical music; 
and in lectures on subjects appertaining to belles- 
lettres, or to history. All this contributed essentially 
to the furtherance of the general culture. Here, on 
such occasions, one sometimes met with distinguished 
men from a distance, inasmuch as the members had the 
privilege of introducing their guests. Thus I saw here, 
of men of science, De Wette; Marheineke , 1 an en- 
thusiastic admirer of art, who by his serious demeanour 
presented to me an infallible measure for estimating 
his philosophical self-consciousness ; Tzschirner of Leip- 
zig, the bold apologist for Protestantism in opposition 
to the Papists ; the great jurist Thibaut , 2 who was 
skilled in music ; the celebrated Carl Ritter, the geo- 

1 Of Berlin. Died 1846. He was an admirer of Daub of Heidelberg, the 
father of modern speculative theology. In some of his theological writings 
he leans toward Sclielling, and in others toward Hegel. — T r. 

2 Of Heidelberg. He was author of a work on choral singing, entitled 
“ Ueber Reinlieit der Tonkunst.” Like Natorp of Munster, he 'advocated 
the restoration of choral singing to its ancient place of honour. — T r. 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


93 


grapher, then in the prime of his manhood ; and many 
others. Of poets, I there met with the excellent 
Swabians, Uhland, Kerner, Schwab, and Baggesen, and 
Tieck from the North. Of artists, I saw the Dane 
Thorwaldsen, who, above many others, drew all eyes 
towards him. With his gigantic stature, and his 
features sharply and distinctly marked, and reaching 
to a colossal magnitude, the whole proportions of his 
profile bearing evidences of genius and strength, he 
appeared like a living statue of Michael Angelo. On 
the occasion of a magnificent banquet, held in celebra- 
tion of Goethe’s seventieth birthday — I mention this 
in passing — I happened to come near to the great 
artist, and after I had spoken with him a little, 
he put to me the question, “ Are you an artist?” 
“ No,” I replied; “I am a theologian.” I then heard 
from him the same words which, at a later time, 
Bettina once addressed to me in Berlin : “ How can 
one be only a theologian ? ” cried, shrugging his 
shoulders, this famed sculptor of the statue of Christ . 1 
Who may expound such a psychological contradiction ? 
I drew from it the conclusion that an enthusiastic 
admiration for the Person of Christ is something very 
different from faith in Him. 

If to what we have already said we further make 
mention of the distinguished “ St Cecilia Verein,” 
formed for the purpose of performing only classical 

1 Bertel Thorwaldsen was horn at Copenhagen, 1770. He went to Rome 
at the expense of the Danish Government to study the art of sculpture, for 
excellence in which he had received, when still a youth, the gold medal of 
the Academy of Arts at Copenhagen. He remained in the Papal States for 
twenty-three years, and then, in 1819, set out on a visit to his native 
country, crowned with fame as one of the greatest sculptors of the time. 
It was on this occasion of his journey to Copenhagen that Krummacher 
met him. Among his principal works, executed after his return to Rome, 
were statues of Christ and the Twelve Apostles. — T r. 


94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

music, under the leadership of Schelbe, Ituppel s com- 
munications regarding his voyages of discovery, and 
many other opportunities of intellectual elevation, it 
w ill he sufficiently evident that, at that time, in 
Frankfurt, there were not wanting incitements of many 
kinds to mental improvement. Yea, in no other place 
was the elevation which the war of liberation at that 
time gave to the whole German world of mind, ex- 
perienced in a greater degree than in Frankfurt. The 
religious element, also, as I have already mentioned, 
participated in this general intellectual awakening. 
There was an unmistakable increase in the interest felt 
in ecclesiastical matters. The sanctuaries were again 
filled with worshippers of all ranks. The Communion 
table, which had for many years been almost wholly 
forsaken by the people, was again surrounded by 
crowds greater than had ever at any time been seen 
before ; and in social circles it was quite noticeable 
that the people felt an interest in conversing on the 
sermons they heard preached from the pulpits on the 
Sabbaths, and that not in a spirit of hostility, but of 
friendly criticism. The general scale of Christian 
knowledge was, it must be confessed, very low. There 
were some, however, who apprehended that the dis- 
courses they heard from by far the greatest number of 
the pulpits, contained in them something essentially dif- 
ferent from the truths of the free Gospel, which many 
who frequented the churches were unconsciously in 
search of. The people were enthusiastic in their admi- 
ration of Senior 1 Hufnagel, who was certainly animated 
in his style of preaching, and, beyond question, learned, 

1 The majority of the inhabitants of Frankfurt are of the Lutheran faith. 
They have twelve clergymen, who are presided over by one of their number, 
who is styled the Senior. — T r. 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


95 


but still only a Deist. They regarded him as a very 
apostle. Pastor Kirchner, a man of high mental 
endowments, though in spirit, and in his system of 
doctrine, related to the rationalistic Paulus of Heidel- 
berg, gained for himself an honoured place by his 
labours for the culture of his native town. Many 
thousands regarded him as an authority in theology. 
What he spoke, they said, must be in accordance with 
the mind of God. 

Pastor Friedrich, about whom it was probably quite 
truthfully reported, that he received instructions in 
the art of declaiming and of mimicry from one of the 
most distinguished actors, exercised every Sabbath, 
by his intellectual, devout, declamatory orations, a 
power over the sensibilities of his numerous audience 
such as no other preacher then did. With what 
emotion did I myself once see his audience dissolved 
in tears, while listening to a sermon in which, after his 
return home from a short tour, which he had under- 
taken for the sake of his health, he presented a truly 
brilliant picture of an enchanting prospect which he 
had enjoyed from the heights of the Schwarz- Wald 
(Black Forest), concluding with these words : — “ The 
view I enjoyed of the creation of God altogether over- 
powered me ! I sank on my knee ! I prayed ; and 
for whom ? for you, for you, my beloved congregation ! ” 
All sobbed aloud with emotion and delight, and one 
would have envied the man for his oratorical powers, 
had there been less of the theatrical in his manner, and 
more that was true and real. Among the Lutheran 
pastors, Stein of Sachsenhausen 1 was for Frankfurt a 
man rich in blessings. He introduced a new and better 
era for the Church. Yet it is true that in him also 

1 One of the suburbs of Frankfurt. 


96 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


pathos was in excess of the clearness and the fulness of 
his thoughts. But he proclaimed with high animation, 
in the language of the educated, Jesus Christ as the 
only Saviour of the world and of the souls of men. It 
was the higher classes principally who waited on his 
ministry. Among those who regularly appeared in his 
church was the noble Baron von Stein, during his 
residence in Frankfurt. Many of the delegates of the 
German Diet, along with their families, also followed 
his example. And how many have had, at a later 
time, reason to bless the church of Sachsenhausen, as 
that in which they first found the “ Light of Life ! ” 
The circle of zealous believers in Frankfurt has from 
that time perceptibly increased ; but so far as it owes 
its existence to human instrumentality, it dates prin- 
cipally from the labours of Pastor Stein. 

In the two Beformed congregations of Frankfurt, the 
preaching of the true faith was never altogether silent . 1 
In my time the four pastors all preached the pure and 
unfettered Word of God, although they were not all 
equally decided in announcing its fundamental doctrines. 
Doctor Spiess, my fatherly friend, was regarded for his 
spirit, his fine taste, and his style of language, as the 
most splendid and effective pulpit orator of his times. 

1 The Protestant Churches of Germany were originally all Lutheran in 
their character. The controversies which broke out in the close of the 16th 
and beginning of the 17th centuries, in the Lutheran Church, occasioned by 
the spread of the views of Melancthon, led to the development on the one 
side of strict Lutheranism, and on the other to the more decided adoption, 
on the part of many of the Churches of Germany, of the views of Calvin. 
Hence resulted a division in the Protestant Church into the Lutheran and 
the Calvinistic or Reformed. In 1817, the late Frederick William hi. of 
Prussia united these two branches of the Church. He gave to the United 
Church the name of the Evangelical Church. The union was only in part 
successful, however. Thus there are now three branches of the Protestant 
Church in Germany — the Lutheran, the Reformed, and the United or 
Evangelical Church. — Tn. 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


97 


Yet he achieved nothing in comparison of what might 
have been hoped for from his labours, because he 
scarcely, in his theological views, rose above the rational 
supernaturalistic standpoint of Reinhardt, the chief 
court-preacher of Saxony, who was to him, and to 
thousands also of his associates in office, a pattern of 
excellence implicitly followed. In his style of sermon 
also he had adopted his method of handling texts. His 
discourses were too much cut up into divisions, and 
were very loosely connected with the texts which had 
been chosen. His occasional sermons, particularly those 
bearing on public themes, may even to this day, how- 
ever, take the rank of masterpieces. On Fast-days, 
he was in an especial degree deeply affecting, from the 
open, free-hearted way in which he dragged out to view 
the prevailing sins. Beyond doubt, many were aroused 
by him from the slumber of carnal security, and stirred 
to seek after the kingdom of God. But to carry these 
souls farther onward in the way of life, and to initiate 
them into “ the wisdom of God, in a mystery, even the 
hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the founda- 
tion of the world unto our glory ” 1 — in this he by no 
means excelled. More of this duty devolved on his 
able colleague Passavant, the youthful friend of Goethe, 
the intimate acquaintance and like-minded companion 
of Lavater, whose cheerful peace of mind, and counten- 
ance bright with unbounded good-will, might be 
regarded as preaching to all an evangelical sermon. 
In his lectures, which, like “ a Song of Degrees/' echoed 
constantly with the love of God in Christ, it were 
greatly to be desired, however, that there had been 
more of a substratum of dogmatic truth. They lacked 
too frequently the power of conveying instruction. The 
1 r Cor. ii. 7. 


98 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMAOHER. 


special ground on which is manifested the love of God 
to sinners, did not always occupy the prominent place 
it was entitled to ; and the way of salvation, with its 
various steps and stages, floated before him generally 
as if enveloped in clouds. No one who heard his sweet 
and heart-moving voice ever left the house of God 
unrefreshed and uncomforted, and not one of the 
ministers of Frankfurt was held in more general and 
more deserved honour than this “ John,” as they were 
wont to call him, on account of the general refrain of 
his sermon, “ Little children, see that ye love one 
another. ” His seventieth birthday was celebrated by 
almost the whole town ; and the poem with which I 
saluted him on that occasion, which appeared in the 
literary weekly journal called the “ Iris,” gave expres- 
sion to the opinions which were entertained by all 
regarding him. 

The French Reformed congregation, with its highly 
distinguished families, who maintained a somewhat ex- 
clusive superiority of rank, had been accustomed at all 
times to hear from the lips of its ministers only pure 
Calvinistic doctrine — with the exclusion, however, of 
the doctrine of predestination ; and those who were in 
my time walked firmly in the footsteps of their prede- 
cessors. These were the Waldensian Appia, who took 
more delight in the ethical element of Christianity; 
and Manuel, from Lausanne, who applied himself with 
more diligence to the dogmatic and mystical depths of 
the Gospel, the successor of the richly-gifted and only 
too early departed Jean Renaud, the father-in-law of 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , 1 our great master of music, 
and composer of the unsurpassed oratorios. 

1 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, 
the distinguished Jewish philosopher. His father was a banker, first at 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


99 


Manuel was much to me, yea, very much. In spirit I 
anoint the tombstone of this distinguished man, whose 
life came too soon to an end. His was a character out 
and out pure and genuine as gold. He was distinguished 
by a thorough scientific education, and by the depth 
and penetration of his mind, combined with a remark- 
able power of imagination. He very soon won my 
whole heart. In our reciprocal friendly intercourse 
there gradually grew up a certain degree of inward 
sympathy, such that a separation from each other, for 
hours together, became absolutely unbearable, and he 
received me as an inmate of the parsonage-house, which 
was situated near to the church. Oh the never-to-be- 
forgotten delightful days we spent in fellowship with 
each other! I bless the man whom the Lord used as 
the principal instrument in leading me to know the 
depths of my own heart better, in revealing to me the 
barren deserts which were there, in vivifying and 
making distinctly felt in my heart my need of salva- 
tion, and in heightening the earnestness of my prayers. 
He has often made me despair of myself, but under his 
encouragement I always again was able to compose 
myself and gain courage. When the world with its 
phantoms threatened again to ensnare me, his voice, 
to me, always clothed itself in the language of God: 
“ This is the way ! walk in it. Turn not aside to the 
right hand nor to the left.” Tempted by doubts — 
historical, critical, or philosophical — we sought in 

Hamburg and afterwards in Berlin. Felix was born in Hamburg in 1809. 
He early distinguished himself as a musician. His oratorios, which were 
all performed in England, for the first time in the town hall of Birmingham, 
were “ St Paul,” the “ Lobgesang,” and “ Elijah.” They were received with 
the greatest enthusiasm, and the renown of the author spread over Europe. 
They stand in an equal rank, as masterpieces of musical genius, with Handel’s 
“ Messiah ” and “ Israel in Egypt.” — T r. 


100 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


common their solution, and rested not till it was found. 
We read together Latin, Greek, and German, with 
which languages he was perfectly acquainted, and also 
French. We engaged in a constant interchange of 
thoughts, if not about some portion of God's Word, 
about some one of the Reformers or Church Fathers, 
or about some distinguished theological work of recent 
date. We refreshed ourselves in reading Pascal's 
“ Thoughts," and in the writings of the Magus 1 of the 
North, which had then just appeared; we wandered also 
through Goethe’s “Faust," “Iphigenie," and “Tasso," 
and enjoyed together the chief productions of all litera- 
ture. We also usually took our walks together through 
the fields and woods; and it then happened not seldom, 
as it was the season of the advancing spring, that his 
Swiss home-sickness showed itself in all its power. 
Even to this day do I hear him, as on these occasions, 

1 J. G. Hamann, 'bom at Konigsberg, 1730, and died in 1788. Kahnis 
thus speaks of him : — “A consuming restlessness pervades his life. Un- 
bounded desire of study drove him from book to book, from one department 
of study to another, without his finding satisfaction. It is almost incredible 
what departments of knowledge he has wandered through. After years of 
irregular study he threw himself, adventurer-like, into the floods of life, 
until in London the Word of God found him. The thirst for salvation 
with which he read the Scriptures, made him find as their centre the sal- 
vation of the sinner through Jesus Christ He was a knotty 

‘ wonder-oak’ from which the winds of the spirit of the time elicited oracles. 
What he wrote are flying leaves which he cast into his time.” Of this Magus 
of the North Goethe says, “ He was of course regarded as an abstruse 
enthusiast by those who swayed the literature of the day (Nicolai and his 
consorts) ; aspiring youth was, however, attracted by him. Even the quiet 
of the land, as they were called, half in sport, half in earnest — those pious 
souls who, without joining any particular sect, formed an invisible church — 
gave him their attention.” Herder, who was at that time teacher in the 
Gymnasium (Frederick’s college) of Konigsberg, was greatly influenced by 
Hamann, who was “ a good handful of years” his senior. They were men 
of kindred spirit, and were united together in deepest sympathy. It was 
Herder who first gave origin to the title by which Hamann became so 
widely know in the literary world, “ The Magician of the North.” — Tn. 


FRANKFUHT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


101 


with a longing sigh, he poured out these words from 
his heart, “ 0 ma patrie ! mon lac ! mes belles Mon- 
tagnes!” (0 my country! my lake! my beautiful 
mountains !) He was at last, however, set free from 
all this longing for home, inasmuch as in spite of all 
the opposition he encountered in the love of his congre- 
gation toward him, he exchanged his official position, 
which was in every respect exceedingly agreeable and 
richly blessed, for that of prison-chaplain in Lausanne, 
a situation, in a worldly point of view, by no means so 
comfortable. It is probable, however, that his decision 
to accept of this inferior situation was hastened by his 
discovery that a love which was shut up in his breast, 
the secret of which only betrayed itself to my suspicion, 
was altogether hopeless. The object of this tender 
affection, which he kept anxiously concealed, was the 
daughter — worthy of all love — of one of the most dis- 
tinguished families of his congregation. Her name 
was Sophie Gontard, and it is probable that she never 
knew how the heart of her pastor was moved toward 
her. 

Manuel was a decided and richly-gifted witness “ of 
all the blessings which we have in Christ Jesus. ” He 
preached with fervency; but nourished as he was with 
the milk of the Greek and Latin classics, and always 
farther increasing his acquaintance with them, he 
laboured, even in the form of his sermons, to attain a 
perfection which, perhaps, many times injured their 
popularity, and weakened the impression of their 
devoutness. Every sermon, costing him from eight to 
fourteen days’ labour, when it was finished, rightly 
laid claim to be regarded as a sort of classic, and, as is 
generally the custom among French pastors, was de- 
livered in different churches, and frequently at the 


102 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


express desire of the congregations who had heard the 
fame of it. Manuel at one time believed that the Word 
read, if that was only done according to the rules of 
rhetoric, would in no degree be inferior in the effect it 
produced to that which arises from the Word when 
sung ; and he once undertook, during the service of a 
Good Friday, to read the whole of Handel’s oratorio 
of the “ Messiah,” and, at an Easter service, the whole 
of Handel’s “ Creation.” I was present during one of 
these remarkable homiletic experiments ; but he con- 
fessed to me with deep shame, after the service had 
been concluded, that he was convinced of his mistake, 
and that his object would have been reached sooner if 
he had prepared himself for his duties in his closet in 
prayer to God, rather than by practising from the 
rostrum of a Demosthenes or a Cicero, and had then 
given free scope to the thoughts which pulsated in his 
heart. He was for ever cured of all confidence in such 
feats of artistic skill ; and his later sermons serve as a 
witness how excellently he had learned to unite child- 
like simplicity, transparent clearness, and true popu- 
larity, with the neatness and elegance of diction and 
of style, which were befitting him. His activity in the 
prison at Lausanne laid upon this intellectual, and on 
many sides highly-cultivated and gifted man, not a 
little restriction; but his humility was great, and 
genuine enough to make this scarcely at all per- 
ceptible by him. He boasted only of the homiletic 
and psychological experience which he acquired there. 
And the witnesses of his laboriousness in this infe- 
rior position, whom he gained also there, speak much 
in praise of his self-denying fidelity. In the most 
vigorous period of his manhood, when pastor of the 
town church of Lausanne, he departed this life in the 


FRANKFURT- ON-THE-MAINE. 


103 


peace of God; and I have myself not long ago seen 
evidence how happy memories of the name, and how 
the image itself of that genuine honest witness for 
Christ, live in his congregation, and even far beyond its 
limits. 

I cannot also forget what the celebrated and excel- 
lent Schoff (town-councillor), Johann Friedrich von 
Meyer, was to me during my year of training at Frank- 
furt. Always welcomed by him with the greatest 
frankness, I never left his study without feeling myself 
strengthened in the faith, and more filled with the love 
of the Lord. I was wont to lay before him all the 
scruples of conscience which in many ways filled me 
with anxiety ; and it was affecting to see with what 
deep concern he entered on the subject referred to him, 
and sought by his discourse to me, which always fell 
from his lips like calm refreshing dew, to set me free 
from my difficulties. I yet hear him saying, “ Does the 
Mosaic history of the creation awaken doubts in your 
mind? Are you not rather filled with the highest 
admiration of the sublimity of these words, ‘ In the 
beginning God created the heaven and the earth/ which 
went forth like lightning into the night of the dark 
world? My dear young friend, could the great secret 
of the creation of the world be brought near to our 
limited human circle of vision in a form more beautiful 
and more appropriate than it is here presented in the 
history of the six days' work, in which single creations 
follow each other in the order in which also natural 
science classifies them? Do not regard the Bible as 
intended to be a convenient handbook of geology, but 
with me praise the loving condescension of the great 
God, who would make Himself in it understood by the 
weakest and most limited in mental capacity of His 


104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

earth-born children.” On another occasion he said : 
“You feel difficulty at this, and that, in the third 
chapter of Genesis ? The world in the midst of which 
this chapter places us is no longer in existence. How 
can we then at all comprehend its appearance ? But the 
events recorded in it — does not your own heart and 
life confirm them to you every day? Is there not 
always something in your own heart which desires to 
be as God? Do you not frequently meet in the depths 
of your own soul the feelings of an exile who looks back 
with longing heart to the home from which he has been 
driven? Do you not also find yourself, with all the 
children of Adam, under the sentence of the thorns and 
the thistles, and at last of death itself, as of some 
strange thing that has fallen upon their original nature ; 
and wherever you sojourn, does not that word reach 
you regarding the “ Seed of the woman” who will 
“bruise the serpents head?” 

When on one occasion I gave expression to some 
fears, in view of the efforts of critics to undermine 
all faith in the Holy Scriptures as the Word of 
God, this valued friend said to me with a smile, 
which mirrored forth to my view the unclouded clear- 
ness and unshaken stability of his faith : “ Let not 
yourself be moved! All these destructive operations 
shall and must serve, according to the will of God, only 
to make evident the absolute immovableness of the 
foundation on which our faith rests. But though our 
adversaries — supposing that which is impossible to be 
possible — were to succeed in bringing suspicion on the 
authenticity of all the apostolic writings — yea, to prove 
that our four gospels were composed in the third or 
some other later century — what matters it? Christ 
yet remains: Tie is the Lord! The evidences of His 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


105 


divinity, as well as of His mediatorial reign, and of 
His power to save, are now indelibly recorded in the 
bistory of the world, and engraven on the sonls of 
millions of men whom He has redeemed and sanctified, 
and brought to the possession of heavenly glory. ” 

But of incomparably greater value to me than were 
these apologetical hints, to which I might add many 
more, with which he came to the help of my weakness, 
was the glance which he thus afforded me into the 
innermost realm of his heart, as well as the familiar 
communications which he made to me from the world 
of his own spiritual experience, and which were so 
strengthening to my faith. He was a mystic in the 
noblest sense of the word, and a man of prayer such 
as few then were. How often did the Lord seem near 
to him in most remarkable answers to prayer, and in 
gracious help which He vouchsafed ! Hence the pecu- 
liar, gentle sunshine which seemed to irradiate his brow. 
Often when I looked upon him, the words onc^ written 
of Moses came to my remembrance, “When he came 
down from the mount, he knew not that the skin of 
his face shone when the Lord talked with him.” 

It was greatly to my encouragement that, on one 
occasion, after he had condescended to hear me preach 
a sermon, he said to me : “I am glad from my heart to 
observe your growth in the knowledge of the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. May God help you to go on 
still farther ! ” My joy at this testimony might indeed 
have given place to shame, for my whole knowledge of 
Christianity was at that time by no means great. Yet 
that word of his comforted me somewhat, and spurred 
me on to greater endeavours. 

In Frankfurt there was at that time a Church within 
the Church (ecclesiola in ecclesia). Von Meyer some- 

G 


106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

times was present at its meetings for devotion. I also 
now and then took part in these exercises. Its presi- 
dent and leader was Lix, the leather-merchant, a man 
of feeling, whom I do not remember to have ever .met 
otherwise than with moist half-closed eyes, and wear- 
ing lightly-framed spectacles. He read and delivered 
addresses of an edifying character at these meetings, 
and also sung and prayed. In this circle I learned to 
know many truly pious men. That the odium of the 
great public rested on the “ conventicle/’ was to me a 
sufficient sign that they who were thus marked were 
really in earnest with their Christianity. But here 
also the leader did not seem to have altogether escaped 
the dangers which threaten the conductors of such 
meetings. A bankruptcy which he made was reck- 
oned — I know not whether there may have been any 
foundation for this — as a very great reproach, to him, 
and, at the same time, it brought reproach also on the 
whole Gpspel. This rendered it necessary for him to 
terminate the prayer -meetings, and it scattered, at 
least for a time, the little congregation. It was soon 
afterwards, however, again re-assembled under others, 
ministers of the Gospel, who conducted its worship. It 
was the root out of which ultimately grew the present 
Frankfurt Bible and Missionary Society. 

When I now review the sermons I then preached at 
Frankfurt, I cannot hut see — however greatly in them 
fancy prevailed over experience — that there was in 
them something, as it were, of the cock-crowing herald- 
ing in me the dawn of a new morning of life. As 
Christ had been long since recognised by me as the 
God-man, who had come down from heaven, and is 
now highly exalted above the whole race of Adam, so 
I felt already also, in a very lively and increasingly pro- 


FRANKFURT-ON-THE-MAINE. 


107 


found manner, that I, a sinful creature, estranged from 
the Creator, could not be without Him, in order to my 
sanctification and salvation. That this belief made 
itself evident in my public ministrations, accompanied 
by the breath of thorough truthfulness, is testified by 
the circumstance that, on one occasion, a Wiirtemberg 
pietist, a believer of great experience and of tried 
fidelity, who had come to Frankfurt on business as a 
merchant, when he heard me preach, came to me with 
the earnest request not only that I would give him the 
sketch of the sermon, but that I would also grant 
him permission to have it printed. Moreover, I re- 
marked, and in an increasing measure among my 
regular hearers, a not inconsiderable number of true 
Christians, whom to this day I ought to thank that 
they were so patiently contented with the stinted pro- 
visions which then in my youth I had to offer to them. 
But, above all, I thank the Lord for the rich blessings 
which, unconsciously to themselves, they were the 
instruments of conveying to me. Yea, the name 
Frankfurt stands as the name of the true cradle of 
my life of faith, and is written, in letters that are inde- 
lible, in the very centre of my heart. And also for 
another reason I bless Frankfurt : It gave to me, from 
one of its excellent families belonging to the city, my 
dear wife, the faithful companion of my earthly pilgrim- 
age, the most precious blessing which, next to God 
Himself, I possess in this world. 


CHAPTEE VII. 


EUHRORT. 

TN the year 1823 I heard that the situation of pastor 
to the congregation of the village of Euhrort had 
become vacant ; and at the same time a request was 
made to me, provided I had an inclination to become a 
candidate, to deliver a sermon there. I at once resolved 
to do so, and accordingly set out on my journey thither, 
preached, and, not long after my return, was surprised 
by the news that I had been chosen from among the 
candidates by a great majority. The departure from 
Frankfurt, the separation from all the beloved families 
with whom I had formed an intimate acquaintance, 
and the leaving of all the opportunities I there enjoyed 
of mental quickening, of cultivating a taste for that 
which is aesthetically beautiful, and of mingling in the 
best and most delightful society, particularly the fre- 
quent excursions which I made in company with those 
who were of kindred spirit, to the hills around, and 
through the green pleasant valleys and meadows which 
lay between the magnificent mountain ridges of the 
Taunus — all this caused me much sorrow. For the 
future, also, I would not have it in my power so easily to 
visit the beautiful town of Heidelberg, where I often 
sojourned in the house of Frau Schneider, who was after- 
wards mother-in-law of the professor of theology, Bahr, 


RUHRORT. 


109 


and where I enjoyed fellowship with many of the pro- 
fessors, such as Boss — father and son — Schwarz, Paulus, 
and others. But that which lightened the sorrow of 
my departure from Frankfurt, was the prospect of the 
independent .situation, as sole pastor over a congrega- 
tion, which now lay before me, and the thought also 
that I would be near to my brother Emil, who had 
been chosen, a short time before, as pastor of the con- 
gregation of Baerl, which lay nearly opposite Buhrort, 
on the left bank of the Bhine ; but, above all, the sweet 
consciousness that I would carry away with me, as in- 
deed the people of Buhrort had expressly wished, my 
beloved one from the dear old free town of Frankfurt. 

Thus, then, I took my departure with my young 
wife, after the venerable Passavant had bestowed the 
priestly benediction on our union. We went forth in 
the name of God, to whom I must wholly ascribe it 
that I was led in this path. From Diisseldorf, where 
the presbytery of the congregation of Buhrort, to which 
my brother Emil had joined himself, welcomed us in a 
large barge, adorned with flags and flowers, around 
which was quite a fleet of smaller boats, we sailed 
down the Bhine. According to the custom of the 
congregations in the Bhine provinces, we were re- 
ceived by the people not as a poor pastor about to 
enter on his office, but like a prince, amid the firing 
of guns and the loud huzzaing of the multitudes on 
both banks of the river, bidding us a hearty welcome. 
At the landing-place of Buhrort, where all the vessels 
in the harbour were decorated with their flags, the 
whole congregation had assembled. I delivered to 
them an address of salutation from the ship. This 
was followed by the salutation addressed to me, on 
their part, by the president of the congregation ; and 


110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

then we moved on in procession through the green 
triumphal arch, amid the pealing of the bells from 
the church tower, into the town, which was every- 
where adorned with festoons of flowers, to the house of 
Haniel, where we were welcomed in the .most hospit- 
able manner, till our own parsonage-house should be 
put in order for our inhabiting it. I do not now 
particularly remember the contents of the sermon I 
preached on the following Sabbath, on entering on my 
office. There was, however, present with me, both 
during and after the delivery of it, a definite feeling 
that between me and the congregation a bond of union 
was formed that could not be more intimate ; and the 
future abundantly confirmed the truth of this feeling. 

Oh how incomparably happy was the time which 
was granted to me in dear Ruhrort ! However brief 
it was — and it extended over not quite two years — yet 
it was the May-time of my official life. The spiritual 
leaven which had gradually penetrated into my heart 
at Frankfurt, now in Ruhrort unfolded itself and was 
seen — the bud which there began to swell here opened 
out into full leaf. Was it a wonder ? I not only preached 
to a congregation hungering for the Word of God, 
which received from my lips, with eyes beaming with 
delight, whatever I had to offer them from the treasury 
of the Gospel ; but I also felt myself as if borne up by the 
affections and by the prayers of considerable circles of 
experienced and well-informed Christians who gathered 
around me, and I thought that I saw very soon my 
constant and yet very imperfect instruction honoured 
with a rich blessing of fruitfulness among the old, 
and especially among the' young. 

Christian life on the Ruhr and in the Lower Rhine, 
especially at Mulheim, Duisburg,. Baerl, Kettwig, and 


RUHRORT. 


Ill 


in the principality of Mors, had at that time less or 
more of a Tersteegen 1 shade about it, without, however, 
any separatists tendency. “ Inward Christianity” was 
the watchword of the faithful. “ Spiritual experience,” 
“ the hfe hidden with God,” “ the death of self,” 
“ Christ in us,” were the catchwords of their theology. 
But whoever would on that account, according to a 
certain new view, mark them with contempt as “ sub- 
jectivists,” must bear in mind their relation to their 
Lord, whom they served truly and in the full sincerity 
of their souls. Yet it happened, nevertheless, to 
many of them that, while they professed to lay the 
whole weight on holiness of heart, they yet at the 
same time fell, unconsciously to themselves, into the 
bondage of a certain external formalism. Tersteegen’s 
saying, “ By silence will they be known,” was to them 
the rule of their conduct. They appeared sparing in 
words, and with their thoughts turned in upon them- 
selves. They were shocked at loud laughter, or jokes, 
however harmless, and indeed at all manner of social 
intercourse which had not as its centre the one sacred 
object. And while attaching no importance to things 
indifferent, they comprehended under the class of 
“ things of this world,” which they condemned, and 
from which they stood wholly aloof, not only the 
theatre and concerts, not only all toasts and the sing- 
ing of merry songs at family festivals, but they also 
regarded as worldly, and not befitting those who are 

1 “ Gerhard Tersteegen, ribbon- weaver at Mulheim, on the Ruhr (died 
1769), was a mystic, and that one of the noblest and most pious that ever 
lived. He is distinguished as a sacred poet. He was a patriarchal hermit, 
to whom anxious souls came from far and near to receive spiritual counsel, 
comfort, and refreshment ; and he was withal a child in humility and 
simplicity. Without being a separatist, he regarded the Church with 
indifference and neglect.” — Kurtz. — Tr. 


112 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Christians, the taking of any interest in any other 
kind of literature than that which was distinctively 
religious. They even condemned all taking delight 
in the creations of art, even though it were sacred art. 
They had no conception of the regeneration of the 
world as the last aim of Christianity. The building up 
of the Church into a glorious temple of God upon earth, 
was to them an idea that was foreign, their whole 
sphere of vision being limited by the spiritual edifica- 
tion of the soul of each individual believer. 

From this tendency, which was certainly unhealth- 
ful, and for which it would be a crying injustice to 
make the noble Tersteegen responsible, the faithful at 
Buhrort ought to have had intelligence enough to have 
kept themselves freer. Tersteegen was their favourite 
and constant guide and adviser in the narrow way. 
His “ Crumbs ” constituted, the whole year through, the 
principal foundation of their household devotion, and 
the precious songs of his imperishable 4 4 Geistliches 
Blumengartlein ” (Little Garden of Spiritual Flowers) 
lived continually in their mouths and in their hearts. 
But they did not confine their religious reading wholly 
to Tersteegen s writings, but appropriated to themselves 
also the spiritual treasures found in the writings of 
Lampe and other devoted servants of God. But, above 
all, they turned from the brooks and cisterns ever afresh 
to the living fountain, the Word of God itself. They 
were diligent searchers of the Bible, and this guarded 
them against many errors into which others had fallen, 
through a too unconditional attachment to the mystics 
of the French Catholic Church — Poiret, J. de Ber- 
nieres-Louvigny, Madame de Guyon, and others — 
whom Tersteegen, by means of translations and other- 
wise, made accessible to wider circles of readers in order 


RUHRORT. 


113 


to guard their inner life against the blighting influence 
of a dead orthodoxy. But did the sea-faring life of the 
Christians at Buhrort, which, in contrast to the occupa- 
tion of weavers which prevailed in other places, extended 
the horizon of their thoughts and brought them into 
contact with men of different lands, help to give a 
fresher and freer direction to their thoughts ? This 
was the case, as might naturally have been expected. 
But the principal thing by which they were kept from 
the narrowness of a false legal ascetism, was the cir- 
cumstance that to them the Scripture doctrine of justi- 
fication by faith alone, which to those who are called 
mystics, and even to a Thomas a Kempis , 1 was hid under 
a thick veil, was revealed in unclouded clearness, as the 
Beformers had brought it forth again from underneath 
the rubbish of Bomish institutions. 

Among the faithful of those who were the first-fruits 
of my ministry there were two men who, though they 
sat at my feet as if eager to learn like the rest, with a 
modesty and humility which often put me to the blush, 
were yet true fathers in Christ to me. The one, named 
Scholten, was in his youth a driver of horses along 
the river-side, but who became at a later period, by 
fidelity and industry, and through the dowry he acquired 
by his wife, a well-to-do owner of land and property at 
a colliery. He was at an early period of life led into 
the ways of holiness, principally by means of Terstee- 
gen s writings, which he was wont to fasten on the 

1 Was born at Kempen, near Cologne, about 1380. He was educated 
among tbe “Brethren of the Common Life.” He afterwards became a 
canon in the monastery on Mount St Agnes, at Zwoll. He employed himself 
in transcribing the Bible and several of St Bernard’s treatises, a work in which 
he excelled. He transcribed also from older manuscripts a work entitled 
« De Imitatione Christi,” which is now generally supposed to have been 
composed by Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris.— T k. 


114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

crupper of the horses behind which he walked, and to 
read from this strange desk. He afterwards consecrated 
all his spare hours to a very diligent perusal of God’s 
Word ; and by personal inquiry, by prayer, and conver- 
sation with other like-minded friends, he at length 
acquired a knowledge of the Bible which many theo- 
logians might have envied. And his extensive know- 
ledge of the Bible was perfectly equalled by his under- 
standing of its contents. 

When I came to Buhrort, this dear amiable man, to 
whom my heart was very soon drawn, was regarded, 
and properly so, among the pious of that place, and 
throughout the whole surrounding district, as a mature 
Christian of great enlightenment and experience. He 
was invited to visit those who were seeking after sal- 
vation, and to speak to them of the way of life ; and as 
he had in a remarkable degree the gift of presenting 
the truth in a clear and lively manner, he frequently 
conducted meetings for religious instruction and devo- 
tion, sometimes in one place and sometimes in another. 
Though the labours thus imposed on him of visiting 
among the dwellings of the people were very great, yet 
after he was assured by the excellent clergyman of the 
place of his approbation of his conduct, he always 
responded to such invitations with joy ; and I have 
myself many a time, and to my own great edification, 
been witness of the unction and solidity and popular 
power with which he was wont, “ from the heart to the 
heart,” to proclaim the word of life. To very many 
indeed he was a messenger of blessings, and not least to 
myself. He has now departed from earth to the Church 
triumphant. A few years ago, when I saw him, then 
an old man of ninety years, I addressed him in these 
words : — “ My dear Scholten, how greatly have I reason 


RUHRORT. 


115 


to thank you ! Through you the Lord led me deeper, 
not only into the knowledge of my own corrupt heart, 
but also of the word of His grace. And yet even more 
than this you were to me. May God reward you ! ” 

The other of the two men who were to me, I must 
confess, though it was altogether unconsciously to them- 
selves, as my spiritual mentors, and whom I number 
among the most beloved of those I have met with on my 
life’s journey, was a poor master-tailor, by name Wickop. 
To prevent all sneering at the mention of this man, I 
remind the reader of the words of the apostle : “ God 
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound 
the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the 
world to confound the things which are mighty ; and 
base things of the world, and things which are despised, 
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to 
bring to nought things that are.” 1 He was self-taught 
from his childhood, but, according to the words of the 
prophet, “ taught of the Lord,” 2 full of spirit and of 
fine feeling, and as rich in faith and in love as in un- 
assuming modesty and genuine humility. He was 
compared, not without truth, to the disciple who lay 
on Jesus’ bosom, the apostle John ; while in his friend 
Scholten there was perceived more of the nature of 
Peter. On his lofty brow rested, as it were, the reflec- 
tion of the “ wisdom that is from above,” of which the 
Apostle James says, “It is first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good 
fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” 3 

On his clear and beautiful countenance there shone 
the light of mildness, and gentleness, and inward peace, 
which made the most pleasing impression on all who 
beheld him. The true-hearted, open glance of his 
1 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. 2 Is. liv. 13. 3 James iii 17. 


116 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

friendly eye inspired all with the most perfect con- 
fidence in him, and his words streamed forth from his 
lips so clear, so full of meaning, so well arranged, yea, 
often admirably selected, and as if springing from a 
kind of sacred humour, that no one was left in doubt 
that this man, although he had never passed through 
the schools of science and of literature, was yet in the 
possession of true profound education. His whole 
appearance confirmed in a high degree a well-known 
saying of Goethe's, who, without being conscious of 
it, often gave forth predictions, as formerly the Rabbi 
Gamaliel and the high-priest Caiaphas did ; and still 
more, there was fulfilled in him that word of One 
greater than all, which was spoken to fishermen and 
publicans : “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, 
which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain- 
say nor resist." 1 This beloved man lived and moved 
in the atmosphere of the Word of God as in his pro- 
per element ; and how frequently had he not occasion 
amid his labours to echo, from his own experience, 
these words of David : “ How precious also are thy 
thoughts unto me, 0 God ! how great is the sum of 
them!" 2 He was rich in possessing a deep insight into 
the Holy Scriptures; and it was a great pleasure to 
hear him when, with an eye beaming with delight, hut 
yet with the greatest modesty, he communicated how 
he believed that he had discovered, in this place or in 
that, some new depths of meaning, had found some new 
treasury of truths, or the solution of some biblical 
difficulty. But he was rich not only in his intelligent 
acquaintance with the Bible, but also in his experi- 
ence of the nearness of the Lord, and of the efficacy of 
prayer, for he was eminently also a man of prayer. 

1 Luke xxi. 15. 2 Ps. cxxxix. 17. 


RUHRORT. 


117 


But let no one suppose that he was one who, like an 
anchorite, withdrew from the world. He mingled in 
the most friendly way with his fellow-men, and so far 
as his ability reached, he was always ready to help his 
fellow-citizens and his neighbours, and cheerfully took 
part in all undertakings which were for the common 
weal, and in all Christian associations. He looked 
with delight on the beautiful world of nature, “ the 
divine picture-book for learners,” as he called it ; and 
his soul was so attuned, that even what was truly 
beautiful in secular art and poetry awakened a respon- 
sive echo within him. 

These two friends I now saw every Sabbath sitting 
before me, along with not a few other experienced and 
mature Christians, in the very attentive and always 
numerous congregation ; and one very easily conceives 
how a young preacher would be excited and quickened 
by having such hearers as these. He could not but 
feel himself fired with earnestness in his endeavour 
always to present well-considered discourses, corre- 
sponding to their expectations and necessities. After 
the public services of the Church were concluded, these 
Christian friends were accustomed to meet together 
again, in the house of one or another of their number, 
to converse together in a familiar manner over what 
they had heard ; and to their no little joy I also some- 
times was present at these pleasant meetings. It 
happened that I frequently heard there many beautiful 
thoughts expressed, which, alas, I had not spoken as I 
ought to have done, and many deep interpretations 
of Scripture given which made me ashamed ; for with 
sincerity of heart they really ascribed them to me, and 
I had only thankfully to note what they said. By 
this means, I naturally felt myself spurred to more 


118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

diligent study of the Scriptures, and to more earnest 
prayer, that I might, at least in some measure, be worthy 
of the remarkable confidence which, to my shame, they 
placed in me. 

On one occasion there happened to me what once 
also occurred in the experience of the celebrated Bishop 
Albertini of the Moravian Brethren. As he was preach- 
ing on the words of the apostle, “ In labours more 
abundant/' 1 &c„ one of his auditors, to the surprise of 
the whole congregation, cried out, “ It is plain that Paul 
was strongly inclined to pride and vainglory, whatever 
else may be deduced from this passage." So, when dis- 
coursing on the words, “ Forasmuch then as the children 
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself like- 
wise took part of the same; that through death he 
might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil," 2 I allowed the inconsiderate remark to 
escape my lips, following therein the opinion of Saurin, 
whose writings I had but recently been engaged in 
reading, that the apostle, in the last words of that text, 
alluded to the superstition of the later Judaism, accord- 
ing to which “ Sammsel," a wicked spirit, held the 
world in terror, and ruled over it by Death as his jailer 
and hangman. No sooner had I said this than one of 
the friends sitting in the circle I have above referred to, 
addressed to me, quite inoffensively, and in a modest 
manner, the question, Whether the apostle, then, did 
not believe and wish to teach that the devil truly had 
the power of death, in so far as he not only filled the 
soul with fear through death, but also, after he had 
drawn men aside into sin, led men away into hell by 
means of death as his executioner ? The question filled 
me with surprise and amazement. I had not only made 
1 2 Cor. ii. 23-30. 2 Heb. ii. 14. 


RUHRORT. 


119 


the apostle to be suspected of writing in accommodation 
to a Jewish superstition, but I had also given rise to the 
thought that I myself denied the existence of the devil. 

I assured the friends, notwithstanding all I had said on 
the subject, that I was no such heretic as that; yea, 

I begged them to pardon me that I had for the moment 
been so forgetful. But by this I only made the case 
the more embarrassing. They, in reply, begged me to 
pardon their boldness, and assured me that they had 
not the remotest doubt about my soundness in the 
faith. I mention this occurrence only as an evidence 
at once of the delicate forbearance which the faithful of 
the congregation at Buhrort showed to their young 
pastor, as also of the modesty which at all times they 
evinced in all their intercourse with him. 

I may well say that the congregation took me and 
my wife by the hand. Whatever they could do in an- 
ticipation of our wishes, that they cheerfully did. They 
took care that our house was well supplied with meat 
and drink, so that we scarcely needed to purchase any- 
thing. When a little son was born to us, whom it was 
found necessary to nurse with a nursing-bottle, they 
very considerately arranged that a milk-cow kept by 
one of them should be reserved for our house exclusively. 
When we thought of filling our garden with vegetables 
instead of flowers, they told us that we would receive 
abundance of vegetables from the gardens of the con- 
gregation ; and so we certainly found it to be the case. 
The friends celebrated our birthdays, and came to us 
on such occasions with their good-wishes and with 
presents for us. They surprised us on the occurrence 
of such family festivals with choral and psalm singing, 
and by other such displays and acts — and always in the 


120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


most delicate way, as proved the greatness of their 
affectionate interest in us. 

“ But had you no adversaries?” Do you mean per- 
sonal adversaries ? I am inclined to believe I had none. 
There were, however, certainly not wanting those who 
opposed themselves to my doctrines. These adversaries 
were chiefly found among the families of several wealthy 
and in other respects very honourable owners of coal- 
works, who had come over from the county of Mark, 1 
and settled at Buhrort, where they had stores of the 
produce of their works. This they did for the sake of 
conducting the transport on the Ruhr and the Rhine, and 
superintending the traffic at the harbour of Ruhrort. 
In the district I have named, at that time distinguished 
for the spirit of patriotism it displayed, there still sur- 
vived the recollections of the “ great monarch,” 2 such 
as perhaps was found in no other district of the Prus- 
sian Fatherland. In every house one found his por- 
trait. No region was richer in the anecdotes which 
were related by the people concerning “ old Fritz,” than 
was the district of Mark. But, along with his fame as 
a conquering hero, they gloried in him also as the 
philosopher of Sans-Souci, and his principles here found 

1 An old county, now comprehended in the Prussian province of West- 
phalia. 

2 Frederick II. of Prussia, Frederick the Great. After a brilliant reign, 
so far as the advancement of the material interests of Prussia are con- 
cerned, he died in 1786 at the palace of Sans-Souci. He was an avowed 
unbeliever in revealed religion. His notions even of natural religion were 
of the vaguest kind. He admired Voltaire, and was greatly influenced in 
his opinions by the French literati of that period. On one occasion, writing 
to Voltaire, he said : “Were I a heathen, I world worship you under the 
name of Apollo ; were I a J ew, I would assign you a place beside the 
kingly prophet and his son; were I a Papist, I would make you my 
guardian saint and my father confessor ; but as I am no one of these, I can 
do no more than content myself with admiring you as a philosopher, loving 
you as a poet, and honouring you as a friend.” — Tr. 


RUHRORT. 


121 


hospitable acceptance. Hence there appeared in many 
of the inhabitants of that place a spirit of opposition to 
the faith to which I was attached with my whole heart, 
and which I loudly proclaimed. Yet, for all that, this 
did not separate them from the church, nor alienate 
them from myself personally. We met frequently with 
one another, disputed often keenly enough, and then 
sat down peacefully again together in the Presbyterium. 
They derisively called those who were believers “ the 
pure , ” and watched to see if they could not discover 
some weakness or imperfection in their characters. In 
this respect, perhaps, they did not watch in vain ; but 
there was one at least against whom they could find no 
charge of inconsistency or shortcoming — that was the 
master-tailor Wickop. This man enjoyed the esteem 
and love of all. Yea, when he left this world, in the 
peace of God, not only the whole congregation of the 
faithful, but the outside world besides, adorned his 
grave with an honourable memorial; an almost solitary 
example of these words of our Lord, “If they have 
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;” for “ the 
servant is not greater than his Lord,” 1 seeming not 
to be fulfilled. But in this disciple the leaven of 
divine grace had fully penetrated the dough of his 
whole nature in a way rarely to be met with. He was 
distinguished for his Christian excellence, reaching 
even to the eminence of the first disciples of Chris- 
tianity, of whom it is said that “ they had favour 
with all the people.” 2 

But what helped, in an essential degree, to gladden 
the period of my residence at Buhrort, was my near- 
ness to my brother Emil in Baerl. The towers of our 
respective churches saluted each other across the 
1 Jno. xv. 20. 2 Acts ii. 47. 

H 


122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

Rhine ; and on the Sabbath, when the wind was 
favourable, I could hear his bells ringing, or he mine. 
A short walk along the banks of the Rhine, and then a 
sail across the stream, brought us into fellowship with 
each other — and this often happened. And then we 
freely and frankly communicated with one another 
about our respective studies, our sermons, the affairs of 
our congregations, and the interests of our homes, as 
well as also the thoughts and feelings of our hearts. 
In Baerl, also, which had been singularly blessed in the 
labours there of my uncle, Gottfried Daniel Krum- 
macher, in all the useful freshness of his first zeal in 
the service of the Lord, and also in those of his suc- 
cessor, Snethlage, who is now Oberhofprediger, ecclesi- 
astical and spiritual life were then in a very prosperous 
condition ; and that which was once said of the Church 
of Jerusalem might almost have been said of that of 
Baerl and the region around it : “ The Lord added to 
the Church daily such as should be saved.” As a rule, 
the people of Baerl were better conducted and more 
prosperous than those of Ruhrort. They were quieter, 
more hospitable, and, inasmuch as they belonged ex- 
clusively to the Reformed faith, they held strongly 
to the Calvinistic doctrine of the Sacrament of the 
Supper, which in Ruhrort, since the union of 1817, 
had fallen more into the background ; but in respect 
of the inwardness of their faith in the Lord, and in 
the fidelity of their service to Him, they stood in no 
respect behind my dear congregation at Ruhrort. 

Also the old Duisburg, the scene of my boyhood, lay 
only some half an hours journey from Ruhrort across 
the Rhine, and it never allowed the recollections which 
flowed over my soul, in ceaseless waves rolling up from 
the past, to be at rest. I had frequent personal inter- 


RUHRORT. 


123 


course with Gunther, who was formerly professor, and 
with the burgomaster Schlechtendahl, who were stead- 
fast adherents of Menken 1 and the Hasenkamps, having 
much in common with these two noble men. Gunther 
and the burgomaster were the two great promoters 
there of Church life. Ross, in the neighbouring town 
of Budberg, who acted toward me and my brother as 
if we had been his own children, received us often 
under his hospitable roof with unequalled heartiness 
and good feeling, and refreshed us with his genial 
humour. Besides this, the Dutch transport-ships, which 
sometimes remained during the whole winter in the 
harbour of Ruhrort, gave me the opportunity of form- 
ing many excellent acquaintanceships among their cap- 
tains and their families. Thus there were many things 
of a pleasant nature connected with my residence in 
Ruhrort fitted to engrave its name indelibly on my 
heart. It was truly the spring-time of my official life 
which I spent there. 

1 Menken and the two Hasenkamps were of the religious party called 
Collenbuschians, founded by a physician called Collenbusch, of Wichling- 
hausen (died 1803). This party was a sort of offshoot from Spener’s Pietism, 
and was pervaded by the elements of Oetinger’s Theosophy. OetingePs 
development was “ a retreat from the snowy regions of Wolffianism, lead- 
ing through the misty lands of the intuition of Jacob Boehme, of central 
visionaries, of the alchemists of Swedenborg. And then, after all, we are 
again attracted to this Magus of the South by his wonderful life of prayer, 
by the mysterious intercourse with a higher world, by his thoughtful living 
and moving in the mystery of Scripture.” This distinguished Swabian 
prelate died in 1782 . — Tr. 


CHAPTER Y III 


BARMEN. 

TN the beginning of the year 1825, after I had already, 
to the great joy of my congregation, declined the 
calls I had received from the congregations of Langen- 
berg and Kronenberg, there appeared in my church 
men from Gemarke, a parish in the town of Barmen. 
They were presbyters. One of the two pastoral charges 
in that parish was vacant. They heard me preach, and 
after divine service they paid me a friendly visit ; but 
beyond that they gave me no information, and then 
departed. On the following Sabbath other deputies also 
appeared in the church. I observed that by this time 
my congregation, to their no little annoyance, perceived 
what was doing. Enough. I was chosen by the con- 
gregation of Gemarke ; and although my heart bled at 
the thought of leaving Ruhrort, yet I accepted the 
call I had received with the approbation of my Chris- 
tian friends, who recognised it as a call from the Lord, 
which I could not disregard. Many things attracted 
me — the wide sphere of action which was thus opened 
to me, the fame of the spiritual life which reigned in 
the Wupperthal, the fellowship with so large a number 
of distinguished, highly-gifted preachers, into the midst 
of which I should by such a step be introduced. But, 
above all, this translation to Gemarke would bring me 


BARMEN. 


125 


near to my uncle in Elberfeld ; and I had the prospect, 
which was soon realised, that my brother would in a 
short time leave Baerl, and would again become my 
near neighbour. Yet, in spite of all this, I durst not 
ask my heart what was to be done. It would have 
decided quite otherwise. I thought, however, that the 
Lord had decided, and therefore I accepted the call in 
His name. 

The first among the ministers in the Wupperthal 
who welcomed me with a brotherly salutation, next to 
my uncle, Gottfried Daniel, was Pastor Sander of 
Wichlinghausen, which was also a parish in Barmen. 
Although I had heard his name before, yet this was 
the first occasion on which I met him. But this first 
meeting had this effect, that it filled me with the 
liveliest anticipation of our future friendship. It 
brought to me consolation, for it was not without 
great anxiety that I now entered on my new sphere of 
labour. 

My entrance into the Wupperthal, accompanied by a 
long procession of splendid equipages and a troop of 
stately horsemen at their head, represented in the most 
worthy manner the wealth of that industrial district. In 
the midst of it all, however, Buhrort, inferior, it is true, 
as to pleasantness of situation, and ruder in the character 
of its population, yet for all that more agreeable and 
more fitted to engage the affections of the heart, hovered 
before the eye of my memory. Yea, in spite of all the 
heartiness with which they now met and welcomed me 
into the Wupperthal, I thought that I felt a different 
and a colder atmosphere breathing on me than that 
which I had hitherto experienced. And this feeling 
was no delusion. Oh, with what deep thankfulness, 
and at the same time inward shame, do I look back on 


126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the great and overflowing love with which I was con- 
tinuously, in ever-increasing measure, honoured during 
my twenty years’ residence in the Wupperthal ! But 
the love here assumed an altogether different form 
and attitude from that which, almost to my injury, 
brightened with its golden halo my days at Ruhrort. 
It was, in comparison to the love of that my first con- 
gregation, something like the thoughtful love of the 
mature man measuring the worth of men, as compared 
with the instinctive love and respect of the innocent 
child ; or like the love of husband and wife, which, in 
the course of years, has grown into a deeply rooted 
reciprocal affection, as compared with the love of the 
newly married during the so-called honeymoon. 

The principal feature in the character of the people 
of Berg 1 — the Clevish type of character prevailing in 
Ruhrort — among whom I now lived, I cannot otherwise 
describe than as a general intelligence and intellectual 
acuteness. They are a people of quick reflection, with 
whom the heart less frequently asserts itself. The 
sophist is more akin to them than the mystic, the 
scholastic than the enthusiast. They almost seem also 
as if they had been created with a religious capacity 
for Calvinism. Everywhere system was demanded, and 
therefore the Heidelberg Catechism 2 was raised to a 
higher place than the Enchiridion 3 of Luther. They 
held it as of special doctrinal importance, and hence it 
came about that the tendency of their faith showed 

1 The duchy of Berg, in the old circle of Westphalia, hounded on the 
north by the duchy of Cleves. — Tr. 

2 Prepared under the direction of the Elector Frederick hi., by Ursinus 
and Olevianus, two professors of Heidelberg, for the use of the schools of 
the Palatinate. — Tr. 

3 Enchiridion ( = Manual), der Kleine Katechismus. — The smaller cate- 
chism, prepared by Luther in 1529 for the use of the people and children, 
as the larger was for the use of the clergy and schoolmasters. — Tr. 


BARMEN. 


127 


itself even in Lutheran congregations as predominantly 
Reformed. They were, almost to the extreme of Puri- 
tanism, a Protestant people, and from the heart they 
abhorred whatever, even in a remote degree, in consti- 
tution, worship, or doctrine, swayed toward Romanism. 
The fine arts had no attraction for them. Their pas- 
sion was rather for science in its popularized form. 
Nor did they take any delight in singing, particularly 
in choral singing, the text of which was too lyrical and 
altogether too sentimental for them, but could not 
easily have been made too dogmatic. Besides, this 
sober, calculating, speculative people presented in their 
personal character, which was pervaded by the Gospel, 
the evidences of their didactic modes of thought. They 
knew thoroughly and clearly whatever they required 
to know. They were what they were without any 
reserve or hesitancy, and they regarded ignorance of 
what the Gospel of Christ taught as equivalent to a 
being ashamed of it. They always carried their con- 
fession forward to the same degree of fulness as their 
faith, and did not think they had reason to shun inquiry 
into the rectitude of their conduct in daily life, pro- 
vided they stood to their profession. 

Many such Christians as these, firmly rooted in the 
doctrines of salvation, I met with among the members 
of my new congregation at Barmen. Many disturbing 
elements, however, from the districts of the Upper 
Rhine and the river Sieg, on the banks of which Jung- 
Stilling 1 was born, afterwards penetrated amongst them, 

1 A celebrated mystic. He died at Karlsruhe in 1817. As a physician, 
he was distinguished for his skill in diseases of the eye. His auto- 
biography, which was prepared at the suggestion of Goethe, who had a 
great fondness for him, and refers frequently to him in his “ Dichtung und 
Wahrheit,” has been published in English. “The great element of his 
character was an invincible and intense faith in God, and an immediate 


128 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


so that the peculiar features of the Bergish character 
appeared less sharply defined than they were in my 
congregation at Elberfeld, to which I was next removed. 

For more than thirty years before this, the congrega- 
tion at Gemarke had enjoyed, in their Pastor Krall, the 
ministration of one who, as a guide of the people, 
appeared to many of them as a living illustration of 
the words of the apostle, 44 If any man offend not in 
word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle 
the whole body .” 1 Few pastors have ever been so 
highly honoured among the people of his charge as he 
was. He might well have said of himself, with Job, 
44 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a 
king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourner .” 2 
On his friendly, yea, generally smiling lips, neverthe- 
less, there lay an episcopal imperative, which quickly 
made itself apparent to all under this outward appear- 
ance of gentleness, and before which all were con- 
strained to yield. With all his humility, perhaps by 
very reason of it, he was shepherd of his diocese in the 
sense of the word in which it was applicable at once 
to one who cared for their souls, and who was also a 
4 4 governor. ” Even in his own house, which was regarded 
by the people with a certain degree of veneration as a 
tabernacle of God with the children of men, as it was in 
very truth, and among his own family, although he was 
childless, this double character did not fail to exhibit 
itself. His domestic servants passed through his room 
on tiptoe like fairies ; and if after the heat and burden 
of the day his wife brought to him a lighted match for 
his clay pipe, it was done with a deportment and a 

Providence, ever at hand in the time of trouble, and which momently pre- 
served man from evil.” — T r. 

1 James iii. 2. 


2 Job xxix. 25. 


BARMEN. 


129 


demeanour as if she presented it to a saint. His ser- 
mons were uniformly of the same general character. 
There was first an introduction, in a sentence, bearing 
some relation to the text ; then an explanation of the 
text, followed by a three-fold application : to unbelievers, 
to those who were longing for salvation, and finally to 
those who had already turned to the Lord and were 
living a life of faith. The contents of his sermons — 
which were always, to a minute, of precisely the same 
length, and never contained a single word or thought 
which had not first been carefully considered, and then 
committed to writing — were good, home-baked, cate- 
chism-bread, solid and*, nourishing, but without any 
generous refreshing ingredients. It was impossible 
but that every one of his hearers, under such teaching, 
should become tolerably well acquainted with dogmatic 
theology, as exhibited by Calvin, even to the profound 
doctrine of predestination. An Elberfeld critic once 
said, If any one should imagine that the venerable Krall 
filled up the measure of his sermon on the Saturday, as 
one fills a flagon by only turning the crane at his feet, 
this would be as untrue as it would be odious. He 
wrote his sermons praying for divine guidance, and there- 
fore there rested on them a rich blessing from above. 

I was now appointed as successor to this venerable 
man, after he had, of his own accord, resigned his office, 
on account of his advanced age and bodily infirmity, to 
the no small grief of the greatest part of the congre- 
gation. I mention only a part of the congregation, for 
there certainly were not wanting those who were glad 
at this result, inasmuch as it freed them from a “ hier- 
archical yoke/' as they called it, from which they could 
not otherwise escape. But the venerable Krall remained 
to his death a benefactor to the congregation, for he 


130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


was a very wealthy man, as well as its circumspect and 
benevolent counsellor. To me, also, he acted the part 
of a kind paternal friend. Many hours have I, with 
great respect, spent beside him ; and I had reason to 
thank him for many salutary instructions and advices. 

However immature and inexperienced I felt myself 
to be as the successor of such a man, yet it was perhaps 
for the good of the congregation that now, once again, 
the fresh youthful breath of the “ first love ” to the 
Lord, and to the sacred office with which I was now 
invested, should blow upon them. My excellent and 
richly-gifted colleague, Dr Graber, who afterwards 
became general superintendent; was certainly not defi- 
cient in zeal in testifying for the truth, and in warmth 
of heart ; but yet he was at least ten years my senior, 
and was greatly inclined toward dialectics, whilst I was 
more a man of feeling and of imagination. Thus one 
in faith, the complement of each other, we went on in 
our work hand in hand, with the most fraternal affec- 
tion toward each other ; and it caused no disturbance to 
our confidential relationship that he often blamed me, 
and perhaps justly so, for my rhetorical and even dog- 
matic extravagances ; while I, on my part, also often 
reproved him for his too cautious and dry argumentative 
moderation and reserve in the statement of doctrine. 

In Barmen there was at that time very great activity 
displayed in the sphere of ecclesiastical life, the waves 
of which, from year to year, rose ever higher. The 
extensive population of Lower Barmen exhibited in the 
fullest representation the beautiful spectacle of a true 
Christian Church-union, and was blessed with the 
labours of these distinguished men of God, Snethlage 
and Leipoldt, who were still in the prime of their youth. 
In Wupperfeld the theosophic Pastor Feldhoff poured 


BARMEN. 


131 


out the thoughts which filled his burning heart, and 
awakened many to a new life. There also laboured the 
eloquent Heuser, whose appearance, as often as he 
entered the pulpit, seemed to be a fulfilment of the 
promise of the Lord by the prophet Zephaniah, “ Then 
will I turn to the people a pure language, that they 
may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him 
with one consent. ” 1 In Wichlinghausen, Sander sounded 
the trumpet of a pure Gospel, so that far and wide, 
over mountain and valley, it summoned to the standard 
of the Cross. Associated with these men was Pastor 
Lindl, formerly a Romish priest, who had been forced 
to leave Sarepta , 2 in Russia. By his powerful sermons 
on the necessity of repentance, preached here and there, 
he aroused the minds of the people. At my parsonage- 
house he was solemnly consecrated as the first inspector 
of the Barmen Mission Seminary, which had then just 
been established. 

Great crowds of hearers were everywhere thronging 
the churches, and it was quite a common thing to hear 
the sound of choral singing, in which many voices were 
united, proceeding from the workshops and factories, 
and echoing from the woods and hills around on the 
Sabbath afternoons. Our time was indeed almost 
wholly taken up with our official duties. In addition 
to the services of public worship on the Lord’s day, 
were week-day sermons, and many services connected 
with baptisms and funerals. The children, as a rule, 
from their tenth year, and not seldom from their eighth 
and ninth years, attended our catechism classes. Bap- 
tisms and marriages were all celebrated in the houses 

1 Zeph. iii. 9. 

2 A Russian town on the Scarpa, not far from its junction with the Volga. 
It was founded in 1765 hy a German colony of Hermhutters. — T r. 


132 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HR KRUMMACHER. 


of those concerned ; and it was expected that on these 
occasions the preacher would remain with the company 
after performing the duty, and season the conversation 
by taking an active part in it. Constant domiciliary 
visitation among the families of the congregation we 
reckoned among our common official duties. Besides, all 
who were sick expected to be frequently visited by their 
pastor. In addition to all this there were duties con- 
nected with the societies for Bible circulation, for mis- 
sions and other Christian purposes, which devolved 
upon us ; and our houses were frequently resorted to by 
those who sought instruction in the way of salvation, 
or who only needed counsel as to their secular affairs. 
But all these varied duties were undertaken with joy, 
and the fruit of our labour seemed to increase in our 
hands. In our fields of labour we realised the fulfil- 
ment of that comparison mentioned by James, “ Behold 
the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the 
earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive 
the early and latter rain/' 1 As a rule, the sowing of 
the good seed and the reaping of the harvest were 
not separated by any great interval of time. 

Tersteegen once said that he would not represent 
himself as one possessing in true experience that which 
he described to others of some profound truth, and of 
the condition of a pure soul ; but that rather he would 
frequently be regarded as nothing else than as one who 
first, by the grace of God, had come to the knowledge of 
that which he proclaimed as precious, and to be desired, 
and who sought to attain to a genuine experience of it, 
yea, who also could not forbear in weakness to commend 
it to others. I must make the same confession regard- 
ing myself in view of my labours at that time, although 


1 James v. 7. 


BARMEN". 


133 


I am by no means entitled to compare myself to this man, 
the latchet of whose shoes I do not, in truth, esteem my- 
self worthy to unloose. Many of those things which I 
have preached about the glory of inward Christianity, 
animated me only at first as ideals, and became, first in 
the way of thorough self-knowledge, and increasing en- 
lightenment from above, and after many inward conflicts, 
more and more the true possession of my inner life. 

It was in Gemarke, at a week-day evening service, 
before a crowded congregation, that I first delivered my 
sermons on the life of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. In 
Elberfeld 1 I also delivered them in the same manner. 
In response to the frequent requests of my hearers, I 
published at this time my lectures on the Song of 
Solomon, and a volume of sermons under the title, 
“ Blicke in das Beich der Gnade ” (Glimpses into the 
Kingdom of Grace). This firstling of my homiletical 
publications had the honour of attracting the atten- 
tion of Goethe, who spoke of it in Bohr’s “ Prediger- 
bibliothek ” in the following terms, which were, as a 
matter of course, by no means agreeable to me 

“ Gemarke is a respectable market-town of some 380 
houses, with all the privileges of a town, in the Wup- 
perthal, in the circle of Barmen and duchy of Berg, 
situated over against Elberfeld. The inhabitants have 
considerable linen, ribbon, bed-ticking, and thread 
factories, and carry on an extensive traffic in these 
manufactures, as well as in bleached yarns. There is 
one Beformed and one Catholic Church in the place. 

“ Herr Krummacher is the preacher in this town. 
His audience consists of manufacturers, booksellers, 

1 The town of Elberfeld is connected with the town of Barmen by a 
bridge over the Wiipper. The circle of Elberfeld comprehends the valley 
of Barmen, and contains four towns and twelve villages.— Tr. 


134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

and workmen who are principally engaged in weav- 
ing. In their own narrow district they are to be 
regarded as excellent, well-conducted men, to whom 
it is of the greatest moment that nothing take place 
that is out of the way ; and for this reason there is 
scarcely any mention of great crimes amongst them. 
They live more or less in straitened circumstances, 
exposed to the social inconveniences and trials both 
of mind and body which man, as man, is capable of 
suffering. Therefore, in general, there are found among 
them many of a diseased and afflicted mind. In general, 
however, they are unacquainted with all that can stir 
the imagination and the feelings ; and although ad- 
vanced in home knowledge, yet they are in want of 
proper quickening nourishment for the spirit and heart. 

“ The weavers have been known from of old to be a 
people disposed to an abstruse form of religion, where- 
with they accommodate themselves in quietness to one 
another. The preacher appears to satisfy the spiritual 
necessities of his congregation, by agreeably setting 
forth their condition, and exposing their faults, in a 
way they can endure it, and he intends thereby to 
animate in them the hope of present and of future 
good. Such appears to be the aim of these sermons, 
in which he adopts the following method. 

“He takes the German translation of the Bible as 
canonical, simply as it is, adopting its language with- 
out farther criticism, and interpreting it arbitrarily, as 
an unlearned Church father would do, according to his 
system already prepared. Even the superscriptions of 
the different chapters serve him for texts, and the cus- 
tomary parallel passages as proofs ; yea, he twists the 
word, whatever it may be, and whatever be the proper 
meaning attached to it, to his own use, and finds in it 


BARMEN. 


135 


abundant confirmation of the interpretation he is pleased 
to give it, and which he deduces for the special purpose 
of imparting to the people quietness and consolation ! 

“ He declares that man is good for nothing, and 
threatens them all with devils and everlasting punish- 
ment. Yet he has always the means at hand of pro- 
curing for them redemption and justification. That 
any one should become pure and better thereby, he 
does not indeed desire, being contented that it does no 
injury, because, the aforesaid being granted, the cure 
is always ready, and confidence can be placed in the 
physician and in the medicine. 

“ In this way his expositions are tropical and pictorial, 
the imagination seen and manifest on all sides ; but 
good sense is concentrated into the smallest compass, 
and is not at all heard. Thus his hearers vainly fancy 
that they return to their homes from such displays 
made better, though their ears have received much 
more than their hearts. 

4 4 How this method of treating the subject of religion 
stands related to that which is prevalent in other similar 
well-known, but separistic communities — Herrnhutters, 
Pietists, etc. — is manifest. And one can well see how 
a minister of such a stamp will be welcome to them, as 
the inhabitants of that district, as remarked already, 
are altogether of the working classes, engaged in the 
toil of the hands, and devoted to secular gain, whom 
one needs only to lull to sleep over their bodily and 
mental injuries. On this account, one may justly call 
these productions narcotic sermons , which appear truly 
very wonderful in the clear light in which central 
Germany rejoices .” 1 

1 Goethe’s Werke, Ausgabe von 1840, B. 32, Seite 377-79. Compare the 
preface to the “ Glimpses into the Kingdom of Grace.”— T r. 


136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

My work in Barmen had been now carried on into 
the sixth year with pleasure, under the blessing of 
God, when our mutual love — that of the congregation, 
and also mine — was put to a severe test by my election 
to the office of pastor of the great Reformed congrega- 
tion of Elberfeld. We both endured the test. The 
bond between us had been bound so firmly and closely 
that a dissolution of it could not then be thought of. 
Of the joy which my renewed resolution to minister 
among them gave to my dear congregation, and which 
sought its expression in love-gifts of many kinds, I shall 
say nothing ; nor will I attempt to describe the increased 
delight with which I again resumed my work. This 
second stadium of my ministerial life in Gemarke began 
with a new and extensive revival of religion in the 
congregation ; although the spiritual excitement could 
not be expected to continue long in the same high 
degree. Gradually the waves subsided, and the course 
of things returned to their accustomed form — yea, some- 
times it appeared to me as if, here and there, I could 
discern the beginnings of a certain lassitude appearing ; 
not visibly, indeed, in the matter of attendance at 
public worship, but in the interest manifested in the 
Kingdom of the Truth. 

The question of the Agenda 1 began also to be 

1 i.e., things to be done. It is a name given by ancient ecclesiastical 
writers to books which, were published by authority as guides to ministers 
and people in the various services of public worship. It first occurs, in this 
sense, in the writings of Johannes de Janua, 1287. It was adopted in the 
Lutheran Church of Germany, and is there still used to designate the 
public liturgy of the Church, the book containing the formulae of prayer 
and ceremonies to be observed by the minister in conducting public 
worship. Since the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church has made 
use of the term ritual , instead of agenda. In order to promote his scheme 
of union, which he had inaugurated at the Jubilee of the Reformation, 
1817, between the Lutheran and the Calvinistic Churches of Germany, 


BARMEN. 


137 


agitated in the congregation, much to the injury of its 
spiritual life. My colleague Graber, on one occasion, 
on his return from the provincial synod, of which he 
had been moderator, and where they were of opinion 
he had not been decided enough against the Prussian 
agenda, was met by a number of rude boys, who 
chalked upon his back the figure of a cross, as if 
they would thereby indicate that he intended to make 
the congregation Catholic. 

What also caused a certain reaction in the spiritual 
life of the Church of Barmen was a sorrowful episode , 
of which I must, in a few words, give some account. 
There appeared among us a certain German preacher 
from America, a man of great rhetorical power accord- 
ing to the style of the Methodists, and capable of 
wielding a great influence over his audience. He was 
regarded as a very pattern of piety ; and from our 
pulpit, which we willingly resigned to him for a time, 
was able, in a very remarkable degree, particularly by 
the number of his religious anecdotes, and histories of 
cases of conversion, to arrest the attention of the 
great crowds that assembled in the church hours even 
before the time of public worship, whenever he preached, 
and to move them to tears, the signal for which was 
usually his own tears flowing copiously. The publica- 
tion of a collection of poems, teeming with warm emo- 

King Frederick William in. introduced a new agenda in 1822, which was 
chiefly prepared by himself, principally from Lutheran sources. It did not 
give much satisfaction, on account of its stringent regulations, which by some 
were regarded as Romanizing in their tendency. A second edition was 
therefore issued in 1829, intended to be more conciliatory in its character. 
The congregations in the Wupperthal being, for the most part, Reformed, 
disapproved of the arbitrary measure of the Government in introducing the 
new liturgy. They desired to retain more freedom in their forms of reli- 
gious worship. Hence the question of the agenda was agitated in the 
Church. — T r. 

I 


138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

tion, and exhibiting true poetic talent, could only 
heighten the general estimation in which he was held. 
Hundreds of souls were awakened by means of this 
earnest man, and hung upon him with an almost idola- 
trous veneration. All this elevated his oratorical 
pathos more and more ; and not less also his pride, 
which at length he was not able any longer to conceal 
behind the artful guise of humility. Rendered bold by 
the triumph he had won, and believing himself firmly 
rooted in the favour of the people, he ventured to give 
utterance from the pulpit to witty statements, popu- 
lar expressions, and a chaotic mixture of accidental 
ideas and thoughts of the most extravagant kind. But 
that was not all ; the stories by means of which he 
sought to awaken souls and melt to tears, and in which 
he was wont, as it were, to open up both heaven and 
hell to the view of his auditors, gradually assumed so 
strange, yea, so wild a character, that doubt arose in 
the mind whether they were truths or only fictions. At 
the same time, the discovery was every now and then 
being made that there was not wanting in the appar- 
ently seraphic man, a delight in material enjoyments, 
and still less a craving after the favour of the great and 
the rich. Enough. His reputation had already passed 
beyond its highest point. And what now happened? 
From America there came tidings regarding him which 
compromised in the most serious manner his moral 
character. There appeared young men with dis- 
closures which suddenly stamped on the brow of the 
celebrated man the mark of an unmasked hypocrite of 
the basest kind. Yea, it appeared manifest that this 
man, even quite recently, whilst he was regarded by 
thousands as full of the Spirit and of holy enthusiasm, 
had been guilty of crimes, of which it is “ a shame even 


BARMEN. 


139 


to speak ! ” Naturally, as the effect of these discoveries, 
he at once stood isolated, as if he had been a leper. 
Not only the churches, but now the houses of the 
people were shut against him. His disciples, more- 
over, not only withdrew from him, but for the most 
part they went back again to the world, and nothing 
remained for him but to leave the Wupperthal, yea, 
Germany itself, with disgrace and ignominy, and to 
return in the utmost haste to America, where, as we 
afterwards heard, he met with a fearful end. In the 
Wupperthal they endeavoured to forget this very sad 
ecclesiastical intermezzo. Whatever the man had re- 
lated of an edifying nature, they did not repeat ; but 
looked upon it as to be classed only among false inven- 
tions and incredible fables. His poems were every- 
where cast into the fire, or were converted into mere 
waste paper. And here, also, we pass by in silence the 
name of this unhappy man. 

But this sad event did not occur without producing 
lamentable consequences, injurious to the prosperity of 
the* Church. The enemies of Christianity naturally 
derived from it a new occasion of reproach against the 
Gospel and its friends. Those who were not estab- 
lished in the faith, gathered therefrom also doubts 
regarding the regenerating and sanctifying power of 
the Word of the Cross, which this man had pro- 
claimed in so lively and earnest a manner. By this 
sorrowful occurrence, also, many of the faithful were 
for a long time deprived of that impartiality with 
which they had hitherto listened to warm and ani- 
mated sermons ; and particularly there was infused 
into them a mistrust in all stories regarding the 
experiences of the Christian life, as if they were 
all of them inventions contrived “ in majorem Dei 


140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


gloriam .” 1 A great scandal was thus created, whose 
destructive consequences, however, were, in course of 
time, greatly counteracted in the circles of men who 
were seeking salvation. Some, for instance, found in 
the life-course of that miserable man only a fulfilment of 
the words of the apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, 
“ For it is impossible for those who were once enlight- 
ened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were 
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the 
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 
if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto re- 
pentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of 
God afresh, and put Him to an open shame .” 2 Others 
thought on Balaam, whose New Testament representa- 
tive they supposed him to be. But all regarded the 
event as teaching them humility, inasmuch as his con- 
duct created in them the consciousness how greatly 
they were wanting in the gift of distinguishing spirits ; 
while, at the same time, it impressed more deeply upon 
them the truth, that it was not feeling (Empfindung), 
but the disposition of the mind (Gesinnung), which 
made a man a Christian, inasmuch as the old sinful 
nature could assume a bastard-blossom of apparently 
pious feeling, which had nothing in it in common with 
the life of faith to which it perhaps bore a likeness ; 
and, in a word, it was a spur to them to earnest self- 
examination, and it awakened them to renewed fervour 
and zeal in a life of watchfulness and prayer. Herein 
there was seen a fulfilment of that word which teaches 
that “ all things work together for good to them 
that love God.” Thus this sad history proved at 

1 “For the greater glory of God”— the favourite rule of the Jesuits. 
— Tr. 

2 Heb. vi. 4-6. 


BARMEN. 


141 


length to be the means of spiritual blessing to 
hundreds. 

“ You come from the valley, do you not, where 
stories are made ? ” Thus Schleiermacher once, with a 
pleasant hut ironical laugh, addressed a young man 
who had introduced himself to him as a Candidate from 
the Wupperthal. The celebrated theologian no doubt 
meant, by the “ stories,” the “ tracts ” so often met with 
in the Wupperthal, and circulated even beyond the 
valley in other regions, containing records of the experi- 
ence enjoyed by some of the immediate nearness of God, 
and examples of remarkable answers to prayer ; and he 
intended also by the expression to give indication of 
his possessing by no means a strong faith in these little 
things (“ Sachelchen ”), which lay so far beneath the 
sphere in which his spirit moved. 

In experiences of that kind the congregation of 
Gemarke, richly blessed from former times, was also 
not wanting. As it would have been difficult to find 
among them a single family in which at least one true 
disciple, or one tried handmaid, of the Lord could not 
have been found ; so, on the other hand, there were 
many houses in which all the inmates, young and old, 
were walking in the way of life. And in how many 
of these dwellings could one easily feel as if he had 
entered into the tent of Isaac and Rebecca, or into the 
house at Bethany ! My heart yet swells within me 
when I think of two brothers there, of whom, after 
many years' intercourse, the whole community testified 
that with them never anything else could be seen than 
love, friendship, and constant acts of kindness, united 
with the most genuine humility; or of a certain joiner s 
family, of whom it was said, that whoever was sorrowful 
or was conflicting with doubts must go to it in order 


142 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

to return . comforted, strengthened, and refreshed ; or 
of the family of the owner of the factory, who lived 
among his work-people, as of old, in the plains of 
Mamre, the patriarch Abraham did among his servants, 
and who seemed to carry on his exceedingly prosperous 
business only for their sakes, and for the interests of 
the kingdom of God ; or of the families of the always 
happy and contented silk-weavers, among whom the 
whole of the 128th psalm seemed to be translated into 
life and action, verse for verse ; and of many more besides 
of kindred spirit ! What wonder is it, then, that among 
such families thus devoted to the Lord, that word of 
the Prince of Peace verified itself continually : “ He 
that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will 
love him, and will manifest Myself to him I” 1 

I mention the case, for instance, of a young woman 
belonging to a family in humble life, who had been for 
more than twelve years grievously afflicted under mani- 
fold sufferings. During my pastoral visits to her, which 
were very frequent, I never saw the least shadow of 
impatience on her always cloudless brow; and from her 
bps, instead of complaints, there always streamed forth 
the utterances of thanksgiving to God, that she was 
enabled to trust to His grace. And to what an extent 
did she experience the condescending love of her Lord ! 
If she at any time needed bodily refreshment, she laid 
the matter in childlike simplicity before Him, and she 
required not long to wait till some one of her many 
female friends surprised her by bringing to her that 
very thing which in secret prayer she had asked from 
the Lord. If a dark cloud ever threatened to over- 
shadow her mind, she prayed, “ Lord, send me a com- 
forter ! ” and ere she knew it, there stood beside her, if 

1 Jno. xiv. 21. 


BARMEN. 


143 


not her pastor, yet some other experienced Christian 
friend, who had felt himself moved by some secret 
impulse to visit her with words of consolation. 

I knew also a poor frail ribbon-weaver, who was 
frequently in great domestic straits, but on such occa- 
sions was wont to cheer up his family with the words : 
“ Children, only have patience ! Ye know that we have 
an all-powerful Helper in our time of need, and a rich 
Lord ! ” Retiring to his little chamber, he then poured 
out his sorrows confidingly into His bosom ; and to the 
very end of his life He never left him in straits or dis- 
appointed his hopes, but when things seemed to come 
to an extremity, He always helped him, even hundreds 
of times, and not seldom in a truly wonderful manner. 
I was also acquainted with an old couple, not like 
Elkanah and Hannah, who had only one son, but blessed 
with many sons, who when they grew up were under 
the necessity of going forth into the world one after 
another, and some of them to a great distance. To the 
friends who expressed their astonishment at their free- 
dom from care, and the calm and cheerful peace with 
which they regarded this departure of their sons from 
their home into a world full of temptations, they were 
wont to reply: “We have commended them to our 
Lord, and do it daily, and He has said to us that they 
will all be His possession ; and how can He not take 
care of them V* And they were indeed the heritage 
of the Lord, and walked, and still walk, all of them, in 
the light of His countenance. A Christian friend once 
sprang after his boy who had fallen into the swollen 
flood of the Wupper, and as he sprang he cried, “ Lord, 
teach me to swim ! ” He swam skilfully, although he 
had never tried it before, and he saved his child. He 
raised no claim for a reward for such an exploit. 


144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


How many remarkable incidents of a similar character 
could I not recount ! But experiences of this kind, it 
must be noticed, were solely limited to answers to 
prayer, and to the inner testimonies of the Holy Spirit ; 
never apart from the divine Word, but always in harmony 
with it. Of appearances from the invisible world, with 
which some were said to have been favoured, of audible 
voices which were heard coming forth from it, or of new 
revelations, there was very rarely indeed any mention 
made. As already remarked, the people of Elberfeld 
were in no degree inclined to fanaticism ; and if this 
seems to contradict the appearance of the famous Bons- 
dorf sect of Zionites 1 in the preceding century, it must 
at the same time be remarked that this sect bore a very 
realistic character. It built itself on a false inter- 
pretation of the written word of God, animated by an 
expectation little different from that gross form of con- 
ception prevalent among the later Jews, of the near 
approach of the manifestation of the perfected kingdom 
of Christ on the earth. But after the so-called “ Mother 
of Zion ” gave birth to a girl, instead of the hoped-for 
son who was to rule with a rod of iron, the whole sect 
came utterly to nothing. Since that time there has to 
this day appeared no trace of fanaticism in the whole 
district of Berg. On the contrary, the general opposi- 
tion to such a tendency has only since that time become 
the more decided. I am, nevertheless, far from affirming 

1 Elias Eller, overseer of a factory at Elberfeld, founded in 1737 a reli- 
gious colony at Ronsdorf, as tbe “ New Zion.” His wife, Anna von Buchel, 
who, under fanatical excitement, prophesied of the approach of the millennium, 
he appointed as “Mother of Zion,” styling himself the “Father of Zion.” 
This colony at Ronsdorf obtained at length the privileges of a town, and 
Eller became burgomaster, distinguished only for his insane religious fanati- 
cism and his tyranny over his followers. The grandfather of the great Schleier- 
macher, who was a Reformed preacher, was one of his disciples ; but his eyes 
were at last opened to the delusion, and he escaped to Holland. — T r. 


BARMEN. 


145 


that the spiritual life of the inhabitants of the Wupper- 
thal has always been free from all excrescences. In some 
cases these are found to exist, and they appear in forms 
to which we shall afterwards have occasion to refer. 

From Barmen, I made an excursion into Holland, 
where, during the whole fifteenth century, the reforma- 
tory activity of the Beghards, 1 the Lollards, 2 and the 
“ Brethren of the Common Life, 5,3 was so conspicuous; 
and where the National Church, after having been 
nursed by Calvin’s teaching, at one time stood in so 
close and important a relation to the German Church 
of the Lower Bhine. The people of that land, which 

1 The Beghards was the name of a religions association, formed in imita- 
tion of the Beguines, which sprang np in the Church in the thirteenth 
century. These brotherhoods, so-called, existed principally in the Nether- 
lands, Germany, and France. They supported themselves hy weaving. 
They were instrumental in keeping alive the lamp of truth in many places. 
They, however, ultimately associated generally with the heretical Fratricelli, 
and were suppressed in 1311 by the Council of Vienna. They existed, 
however, as a monastic association in connection with the Orders of St 
Francis and St Dominic, till 1650, when they were finally abolished by 
Pope Innocent. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the name was 
generally given to all persons who opposed the worldly tendencies of the 
Romish Church. It was given to the Waldenses, Wyckliffites, and Lol- 
lards, in France and England. The Beguines were a female association of 
a similar character, which originated prior to that of the Beghards, and 
was always more popular. It was ultimately formed into a monastic 
order. In almost all the large towns of Belgium there are still Beguin- 
ages, the largest of which is at Ghent, containing about seven hundred 
Beguines. — Tr. 

2 A religious association, founded at Antwerp in 1300. They were 
called Lollards, or singers, from their practice of singing hymns. They 

k devoted themselves specially to attendance on the sick, and to the burial 
of the dead. — T r. 

3 An association of pious priests, founded by Gerhard Groot, at De- 
venter, in the Netherlands, in 1384. The institution in the Netherlands 
became the parent of many similar ones throughout the north of Europe. 
They devoted themselves to the duties of religion with great zeal ; and by 
earnest evangelical sermons, and by means of their much frequented schools, 
they were instrumental in scattering far and wide the seeds of Gospel truth, 
and of preparing the way for the Reformation. — Tr. 


146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

has been snatched from the ocean, who were once so 
powerful among the nations, ruling over the seas, 
unfurling their victorious standard in all parts of the 
world, and even dictating terms of peace to the proud 
Louis the Fourteenth — this people of the Netherlands, 
which then comprehended also Belgium, appeared to 
me, in comparison with their glorious past, as if they 
had been wholly removed from the scene of history, 
and laid to rest on their own soil, after it had been 
drenched with streams of martyr-blood, as if on an 
island severed from all the din and confusion of the 
world. But I quickly perceived that they had not 
withdrawn from their centuries of toil, and their con- 
flicts, severe indeed, but carried on with knightly 
valour, without gaining a rich, and enviable spoil, the 
fruit of many conquests. 

I found their houses neat and clean, even to excess, 
and bearing evidences of the most solid comfort. I 
saw in them the signs — in pictures, carpets, and all 
kinds of household furniture — of a substantial and pro- 
sperous state of things, which did not originate yester- 
day. Their families exhibited a vigorous Christian 
life ; and the finest and noblest manners and culture 
were manifested, particularly on the part of the women. 
They surprised me, I confess, by their intellectual 
quickness of perception, as well as by their whole 
graceful lively bearing ; and they reminded me more of 
educated French ladies, whose language they spoke 
fluently, and with the most excellent accent, than of 
Dutch ladies, as they had been represented to me, at 
least by tradition ; while in the men certainly there 
was not wanting that phlegmatic dulness usually attri- 
buted to the Netherlanders. But it was the phlegma 
which is to this day associated with that old vigour 


BARMEN. 


147 


which once shrunk not hack from the boldest under- 
takings, and against which the despotic tyranny of the 
blood-thirsty Alba dashed itself to pieces, and which 
chose as its motto the “ Je Maintiendrai,” which holds 
its place to the present hour on the scutcheon of the 
house of Orange. 

I found during my visit that the Dutch Church was 
divided into two hostile camps. The internal war in 
which they were engaged was the same old one which 
has dragged itself along from the sixteenth century, 
between Calvinistic orthodoxy and Arminianism, a 
great part of whose adherents had entered on a path 
gradually sloping down to Socinianism — yea, even to 
the dead level of the old vulgar Rationalism which had 
penetrated into Holland from Germany. Everywhere 
I saw waving the party standards of the so-called 
“ old ” and “ new ” light. The most active and valiant 
warriors, who drew towards them the sympathies of 
my heart, stood evidently on the side of the old Church 
doctrine. In the forefront of these, penetrated by the 
fire of their “ first love,” and animated by a high 
youthful enthusiasm for Christ, both of them sprung 
from noble Portuguese families, and won over to the 
standard of the Gospel by means of the celebrated poet 
Bilderdyk, stood the two witnesses for the truth — Da 
Costa in Amsterdam, and Cappadose in the Hague. 
By their side, equipped in the full armour supplied by 
the Synod of Dordt, was the noble Groen van Prin- 
sterer, reminding one, by his martial bearing and his 
heroic calmness, of the Ajax of Homer, who appears 
also to have chosen as his device the “ Saevis tran- 
quillus in undis” of William of Orange. In many 
respects, he may be spoken of as the Stahl of the 
Netherlands. He has recently written a panegyric 


148 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


on his counterpart, the German Stahl. I became 
acquainted also with the animated and always active 
de Clerq, the skilful lawyer, and at the same time 
the greatest and most gifted improvisator which the 
Netherlands can boast of for versatility of talent, and 
for true poetic inspiration, as well as for the purity and 
harmony of his measures. These men, by their writ- 
ings as well as by their conversation, laboured for the 
cause of pure doctrine. They had behind them, with 
many others, their contemporaries, and the greater part 
of their fellow-labourers belonging to the clergy, the 
majority of the people connected with the Church ; and 
they became the instruments in God’s hands, and are 
so partly still, by whom the power of Pelagian neology, 
which was already on its way to universal dominion, 
was thoroughly paralysed, if not altogether broken. 

I came into friendly fellowship on that occasion also 
with many of the clergy. I mention here only the 
pastors Van der Ham in Rotterdam, and Dyrk Molenaar 
in the Hague, who by their religious earnestness and 
their theological ability, and by their imposing vener- 
able demeanour and their whole bearing, constrained 
me to imagine that I saw in them many of the old 
Netherlandish pillars of the Church — such as Gomarus, 
Boetius, and Yitringa — risen from the dead, and stand- 
ing before me. 

I frequently attended divine worship in the churches 
in Holland, and convinced myself, from what I saw, that 
zeal for a Church which numbered its witnesses, who had 
sealed their testimony with their blood, by thousands, 
had by no means disappeared from the land. I found 
the churches filled even to their remotest seats, and 
many of them crowded, with attentive hearers. The 
lengthened sermons, extending as a rule to, at the very 


BARMEN. 


149 


least, two hours, required not only that a carafe of water 
should be carried up to the pulpit for the refreshment 
of the preacher, but rendered it necessary also for the 
worshippers, after they had obtained a seat, to supply 
themselves with a hymn-book, a Bible, and a scent- 
bottle, and in winter with a w T arming-pan. I heard 
many sermons which bore the stamp of having been 
thoroughly wrought out, and were indisputably dogmatic 
in their character, delivered with a pathos which I have 
never met with to the same degree of elevation from a 
German pulpit; and I could not but envy the preachers 
the unfaltering eager attention which their hearers gave 
to their sermons, although the course of their delivery 
may have been for a moment interrupted two or three 
times by the preachers moistening their lips from the 
carafe in their pulpit, and by the use of their pocket- 
handkerchiefs, and although the sermon may not have 
been always brilliant with new thoughts. 

I also heard sermons which savoured of the “New 
Light,” but in which the rationalism appeared so faint, 
and as if under a veil, that the preachers would have 
been reckoned in most of the German churches as quite 
orthodox. This anxious caution and reserve of neo- 
logically inclined pastors appeared to me, beyond doubt, 
to indicate that by far the majority of the people 
frequenting the churches were still of the “ Old Light ” 
party. And at the present day this is, as I under- 
stand, the actual state of the theological controversy 
in which the theology of the university, as set forth by 
several of its leaders, is but a servile imitation of the 
German philosophy, which has already been overcome 
and vanquished from the field of argument in the land 
of its birth. No friend of the Gospel can in the pre- 
sent day make a journey through the Netherlands, and 


150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

become conversant with its Church-life, without bringing 
away with him rich spiritual profit. It is to be expected 
indeed that here and there, and principally in the great 
towns, he will meet with wickedness and immorality in 
many forms even on the public streets, such as he has 
perhaps nowhere else encountered in so high a degree, 
and in so wild a form of dissoluteness. As a general 
rule, he will there witness the revolting spectacle of 
sailors reeling about under the effects of brandy, and 
also drunken women of the lowest class. But yet he 
will find himself richly comforted by witnessing the 
vigorous Church-life, the steadfastness of Christian faith, 
the extensive acquaintance with the Bible, and the pure 
domestic morality which he will everywhere meet with 
among this people, and particularly among the middle 
classes of society. The blood-bedewed foundations of 
the Netherlandish Church are deeply laid, and will long 
outlast the straw-hay-and-stubble-work which is now 
sought to be built up upon it, and which it despises. 

What in a particular manner helped to brighten my 
life in Barmen was the confidential fraternal relation- 
ship in which all we ministers, Reformed and Lutheran, 
stood to one another. There was no envy, no strife, 
no petty jealousy, no seeking to have the pre-eminence 
among us. We regarded ourselves as one in all things 
essential to the faith. Together, as a united band, we 
fought in common all our battles. We stood as one 
man against Rationalism and Materialism, as well as 
against Collenbuschianism , 1 Quietism , 2 and Antinomi- 

1 See Note, page 123. 

2 “ The Reformation drove hack the Romish Church, which had become 
wholly externalized, in life and doctrine, to a revival of mediaeval mysticism. 
The powerful J esuits, however, who, in the mechanical character of all their 
religious practices, hated, as much as they did Augustinism, every species of 
mysticism which held outward religious forms in little esteem, and was 


BARMEN. 


151 


anism. We furbished each other’s shield, and whetted 
each other’s sword, at our fortnightly conferences, the 
fresh animated life of which I have described in the 
biography of my departed friend Sander . 1 We com- 
municated to each other our official experiences; and 
while there was by no means wanting mutual respect- 
ful demeanour, yet we did not spare one another, if any 
one on preaching exceeded due limits, or committed 
any mistake in performing his duties. It was a pre- 
cious fellowship in which we lived and wrought to- 
gether. Those of that happy circle who are yet living, 
Snethlage and. Heuser, I hear in spirit calling to me, 
as they too look back with sorrow to the memories 
of that happy time: “Yes, yes; that it was!” 

indeed not wholly free from fanatical enthusiasm. They branded it with 
the heretical name of 1 Quietism ’ ” {Kurtz). The noblest and most devout 
of the mystics of that period was Francis of Sales (died 1622), whose 
“ Philothea ” stands only second to the “ Imitation of Christ.” Michael de 
Molinos, a Spanish priest, published (1681) his “ Manuductio Spirituals,” a 
guide to a spiritual or contemplative life. His great doctrine is, that the 
highest exercise of the soul consists in the withdrawal of the mind from 
outward objects, and in directing it wholly towards God, so as to have the 
understanding and the will merged in Him. Molinos became the doctrinal 
guide of the mystics generally. — Tr. 

1 Immanuel Friedr. Sander. Eine Prophetengestalt aus der Gegen- 
wart gezeichnet von Dr F. W. Krummacher. Elberfeld, 1860. 


CHAPTEE IX. 

ELBEEFELD. 

TN the year 1834 I received, for the second time, a 
call to Elberfeld. This gave rise to a new conflict 
within me, and to new commotion in the two congre- 
gations. My uncle had been compelled to promise to 
the friends in Elberfeld that he would wave a white 
handkerchief from the attic window of his house as 
soon as he received from me a favourable answer to the 
call. The day did come when the handkerchief was 
waved from the window. But I needed one also to 
wipe the tears from my eyes; for the departure was to 
me a sorrowful occasion, despite the joyful congratula- 
tions with which I was now on all hands saluted — as 
sorrowful to me, indeed, as it was to the beloved 
friends who crowded around me, for whom I cherished 
a deep affection, and whose displeasure, giving occa- 
sional expression to itself, grieved me more than their 
sorrow did. Enough. I took my departure ; but, to 
me, it was as if I had lifted my anchor to sail away 
from a peaceful haven out into a stormy sea, full of 
dangerous rocks. I knew the proud traditions, the 
extensive Bible knowledge, the high expectations from 
their pastors, and the excessive critical tendencies by 
which this large congregation was distinguished. I 
knew about their sometimes impetuous contention for 


ELBERFELD. 


153 


freedom and independence; the intensive strength of 
the so-called lay element representing them in pres- 
bytery ; the boldness, often severe enough, with which 
they were accustomed to call the preacher to account if 
in any respect he erred ; but, to my comfort, I also knew 
of the enduring and self-sacrificing love which they 
were wont to show towards him, if they found him to 
be a true and faithful “steward of the mysteries of God.” 
A large number of dear tried friends, my venerable 
uncle Gottfried Daniel, and the family of von der Heydt 
at their head, waited on me ; and so once more, with 
some satisfaction, I struck my tent, and went forth. 

And I have never repented of the course I then fol- 
lowed. Not only did I gain here for my official labours 
a wider and grander sphere of action, but it appeared 
to me also to be pervaded by a fulness of animat- 
ing, intellectual elements. I do not believe that at 
that time, on the European continent, there was a 
place where the Gospel had shown itself in a higher 
measure as a power , and where the ecclesiastical life 
flowed in a fuller and fresher stream than at Elberfeld. 
Of the manner in which we preachers were here borne 
up by the spiritual animation of the congregation, 
elevated and continually carried forward in our work, 
there was no experience in any other corner of the 
Church of our Fatherland. Oh those grand imposing 
assemblages, gathered together in the Church every 
Sabbath-day — a great ocean of faces, and the men not 
fewer in number than the women ! How overpowering 
their full-toned choral singing ! It echoed far out into 
the streets, rendering the liturgical choruses and re- 
sponses altogether superfluous. How earnest was the 
attention of the thousands as they listened to the 
words of the preacher ! The lively evidences of the 
K 


154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

deep impressions they produced on their minds were 
mirrored in their countenances ! And what shall 
I say of the grand solemn Communions, over which, 
instead of light from the altar, the fire of a true devo- 
tion and of genuine worship diffused the radiance of a 
higher glory ! And then the responsive echo of the 
sermons listened to on Sabbath, sounding all through 
the week in the homes of the congregation ; the hearty 
joy with which the pastor was welcomed whenever he 
visited them ; the animated and truly fruitful conver- 
sations on biblical or ecclesiastical subjects, or on prac- 
tical Christianity, which were wont to season such 
visits ; and, above all, the faith-strengthening evi- 
dences of the purifying and comforting power of the 
word of the Cross, which was able to overcome the 
world, and to raise above the trials of poverty and the 
fear of death, of which one heard in so many of the houses 
of the poor and the sorrowing, and beside the triumphant 
death-beds of so many of the dying, both among the 
humbler and the higher ranks of society ! — what a 
powerful stimulus ! what encouragements and incentives 
to offer his very best to such a congregation, could not 
the minister fail to experience from all these things ! 

In Elberfeld I succeeded Pastor Nourney, who died 
in the peace of God at an advanced age. As a pastor 
he was highly esteemed, and was richly blessed in his 
labours. The more stringently rigid adherents of the 
Confession in the congregation had only these things 
to blame him with : that his dogmatics in certain 
articles were not sharply enough defined, and that his 
heart was too tolerant, and that he was too friendly 
towards the union. At his jubilee, on his entering 
the fiftieth year of his official life, it all at once was 
made manifest, in a very pleasing yet splendid 


ELBERFELD. 


155 


manner, in how high a degree he possessed the love 
of all. 

Among my associates in the ministry at Elberfeld, 
the first place is due to my uncle Gottfried Daniel 
Krummacher, a man thoroughly Calvinistic not only 
in his tone of mind, but even in his outward aspect. 
Under a severe, even sometimes gloomy, external 
appearance, like his great Geneva master , 1 there was 
concealed a deep childlike disposition ; and behind his 
doctrinal belief, which he wore like a brazen coat of 
mail, there lay hidden a heart filled with love for all 
who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, A declared enemy 
of all that was false and unsound in religion, he some- 
times purposely at once put on the mien of a man of 
the world, in opposition to a false pietism, or encountered 
those who appeared to deal with godliness as a sort of 
trade, with paradoxes which remained fixed in their very 
hearts like spears and nails. On one occasion, when a 
young theologian, who had travelled a great deal, ad- 
dressed him with the words, “ You wish, no doubt, to 
hear something of the kingdom of God?” he at once 
answered, “ No.” The youthful retailer of news must 
have been thunderstruck by this ready negative with 
which he was met. He probably afterwards felt con- 
strained to reflect on the meaning of this response, so 
promptly given. The truthfulness of the man found its 
expression generally in his sermons. But there never 
appeared in them the traces of laboured ornament or of 
premeditated effect. There was everywhere manifest 
in them, under the plainest form, the most immediate 
evidences of an inner fife. All was natural and original. 
His testimonies reminded one of the mythological 
daughter of the gods , 2 who was born in full dress, 
1 Calvin. 2 Minerva. 


156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

and completely armed. Hence the deep and endur- 
ing impressions which they could always certainly he 
expected to produce. Perhaps few ministers of the 
Gospel could venture to appropriate to themselves, with 
greater justice than he, that word of the prophet : “ The 
Lord hath made my mouth like a sharp sword ; in the 
shadow of His hand hath He hid me, and made me a 
polished shaft ; in His quiver hath He hid me ;” 4 and 
also that word spoken by Moses : “ My doctrine shall 
drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as 
the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers 
upon the grass.” 1 2 The blessed memory of this man of 
God still remains warmly cherished above that of many 
in the Wupperthal. How distinctly uttered to this day 
by the mouth of thousands is that thankful testimony 
to his work : “ Thou hast instructed many, and hast 
strengthened their hands ; thy speech hath raised up 
many that had fallen, and the feeble knees hast thou 
made strong!” 

My second colleague was Albert Kohl, a man of 
extensive knowledge and of great literary ability. He 
contributed much by his truly peculiar sermons, delivered 
“ ore biblico,” 3 to diffuse the knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures. The congregation of Elberfeld was, with good 
reason, proud of him. But now, at the time of my 
writing this, his harp hangs on the willows, or only 
emits the tones which find their expression in the 88th 
psalm. 4 God is near to help those who are in the 
depths of sore affliction ; and he fulfilled in his experi- 
ence that word of the 97th psalm, “ Light is sown for 
the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” 

1 Is. xlix. 2. 2 Deut. xxxii. 2. 3 With constant reference to the Bible. Tr. 

4 “ Let my prayer come before Thee : incline Thine ear unto my cry ; 

for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave,” &c. 


ELBERFELD. 


157 


The third was Hermann Ball, the skilful Hebrew 
scholar, the acute exegete, the zealous and uncompro- 
mising champion and defender of the “ Reformed Zion” 
— a man in whose whole being his motto, “ Das Wort , 
und das Wort allein , und nichts als das Wort” (The 
Word , and the Word alone , and nothing but the 
Word), was distinctly imprinted. On account of his 
tact and ability in the management of affairs, he was, 
in many ways, of great service to the congregation. 

The fourth whom I mention, although the first in 
my esteem after my uncle’s departure to his heavenly 
home, was a youthful brother, who reminded one of 
Apollos, of whom it is testified, in the Acts of the 
Apostles , 1 that he was “ an eloquent man, and mighty 
in the Scriptures ;” that he “ was instructed in the way 
of the Lord ; and, being fervent in the spirit, he spake 
and taught diligently the things of the Lord.” His 
name was Reinhard Hermann. He was the descend- 
ant of a family which had from generations past been 
richly blessed with all heavenly blessings. In his fiery 
energy of action he illustrated the words of the Song 
of Solomon, “ Love is strong as death ; zeal is firm as 
the grave .” 2 But in his mouth those words of the 
psalm also expressed a truth, “The zeal of thine 
house hath eaten me up .” 3 He soon finished his 
course, and was succeeded by Pastor Ktinzel, the man 
of anointed lips, who, worthy in a high degree of the 
title of pastor, to this day, along with five colleagues 
who all succeeded me, has charge of the congregation. 

The pastors of the sister congregation of the Lutheran 
Confession, which, without any formal union, was yet 
in the most intimate manner united with the Reformed, 
were associated with us in close brotherly fellowship. 

1 Acts xviii. 24, 25. 2 Song viii. 6 ; Luther’s version. 3 Ps. lxix. 9. 


158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


During my time, the ministers of that congregation 
were Carl August Doring, an unwearied solver of the 
good seed, which he scattered abundantly over the field 
of the Church by his writings in prose and verse, as 
well as by his spoken words ; and without exactly sow- 
ing in tears, he yet, before his departure to his heavenly 
home, reaped in joy the richest harvest. Then there 
followed the honoured Wilhelm Htilsmann, the first 
and the only one in the Wupperthal in whose sermons, 
which were always rich in thought, there appeared any 
tinge of Schleiermacher s doctrine. He was at length 
called to fill the office of Consistorial and Government 
Educational Counsellor in Diisseldorf, where, for the 
first time, he reached the position in public life which 
was most adapted to his peculiar gifts. After him, in 
the later years of the dear Sander, came the highly gifted 
and eloquent Jaspis, now General Superintendent of 
Pomerania, who, in a very special degree, knew how to 
attach the educated classes to the Church; and Feldner, 
whose peculiar character bore imprinted on every part 
of it the unmistakable stamp of his early patron, von 
Gerlach, but who afterwards, to the deep sorrow of his 
congregation, united himself to the separate section of 
the strict Lutheran party of the Church. 

Perhaps nowhere in the evangelical Church were 
those who sustained the pastoral office held in higher 
honour than in the Wupperthal, and especially in the 
duchy of Berg. While the royal functionary, and even 
the teachers of the upper as well as of the lower schools, 
had reason to complain, if not directly of disrespectful 
neglect, yet at least of the cold reception which they 
met with in the different family circles, the pastor, on 
the contrary, the house-friend, always and everywhere 
cheerfully welcomed, had to be on his guard lest he 


ELBERFELD. 


159 


should contract some bad habit, and be unfavourably 
influenced by the manifold kindnesses with which he 
was honoured. He was made acquainted with all the 
family secrets. To him belonged, as a matter of course, 
the precedence on all solemn occasions, and the place 
of honour at all domestic festivals. Among all who are 
invested with office, he is in truth the only person who 
is specially held in respect ; and that so little on account 
of his title and sacred orders, that it is rather believed 
that if these do not lower him, they at all events reveal 
a certain degree of estrangement from the people, and 
therefore they wish to address him by no other title 
than that of “ Herr Pastor.” I do not deny that the 
proud consciousness of the congregation that they had 
freely elected the preacher, manifests itself to some 
extent in this ; and as little do I deny that the honour 
they pay to him is not exclusively rendered to the 
office with which he is invested as such, but rather 
sometimes to the worthy bearer of that office, 

The conception of the pastoral office which in these 
recent times strives to gain for itself predominance 
here and there, particularly among the Lutherans, per- 
haps arising out of despair at the lamentable condition 
of the spiritually dead congregations, is altogether 
abhorred by the Church in the Rhenish province, and 
is regarded by it as “ Romish leaven.” According to 
that conception, Christ entrusted His treasures of grace, 
not to the community of believers, but to a new tribe 
of Levites, a class separated from the congregation and 
standing above it, the class of regularly called and 
ordained clergymen. To it, and not to the congrega- 
tion, were the means of grace, the word, the sacraments, 
as well as the power of the keys, delivered, To this 
class is given a power and an authority which the con- 


160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


gregation is wholly destitute of. It acts in the name 
of God, and under an immediate commission from Him ; 
but the congregation never does so. The believing 
“ laity ” can and may preach the Gospel. But to pro- 
duce the divine life in the soul by the Word is a pre- 
rogative granted only to the possessors of this office, as 
the successors of the apostles. A layman may also 
speak the comforting words of pardon to troubled souls ; 
but the bearer of this office alone truly dispenses 
pardon. The word of the Gospel comes to the full 
salvation of a man only when the authorized official 
person proclaims it. The Sacrament also is as ineffica- 
cious as the word, if the privileged administrator is not 
present. Many excellent gifts may be present within 
the congregation, but the charisma 1 which is in the 
office alone brings enduring blessings. Apart from the 
legal institution of the duly commissioned possessor of 
the office to which is entrusted the means of grace, this 
“ minister of the holy tabernacle,” there is no channel 
through which the blessings of salvation may flow to 
the Church. The latter never attains to the high 
blessings of its heavenly calling where it is not minis- 
tered unto by a clergy called and ordained according to 
regular ecclesiastical ordinance. Such is the idea of 
the pastoral office to which we refer. 

On the other hand, the Rhenish Church saw in all 
this the rise of a new hierarchy, which contented itself 
indeed with expending its strength for the congregation 
only in the way of applying to it what has been already 
obtained by Christ, and not, according to the principle of 
the Romish Church, in making atonement ; but, never- 
theless, in the one way as well as in the other, the 

1 Xotpia/xoc, gifts and graces imparted from God. Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 7 ; 2 Cor. 
i. 11 ; Rom. i. 11 ; 1 Tim. iv. 14 ; &c. — T r. 


ELBERFELD. 


161 


office of a mediator is arrogated, and the immediateness 
of the relation of the congregation to God is materially 
restricted. And the Church on the Rhine will not be 
herein accused of an unjust opinion when incidents 
happen such as the following, which was lately reported 
from one of the provinces of our Prussian Fatherland. 
When several persons, who had long approved them- 
selves as true Christians, wished to return from the 
fellowship of the Lutheran Separation to the National 
Church, and made their desire known to the- clergyman 
of their district, they happened, among other things, to 
say to him, during their conversation with him, that 
they hoped they had received the pardon of their sins 
from the Lord, this “ Lutheran pastor ” of the Evan- 
gelical National Church said to them, “ How dare ye 
venture to boast of the pardon of your sins, when it has 
not been adjudged to you from a confessional ?” And 
when they appealed to the words of the Holy Scriptures, 
in which the approach to the throne of grace is declared 
to be set wide open to all believers, he reproached them 
with it as a culpable presumption, that they should 
venture to read the Scriptures for themselves. When 
they quoted again, in vindication of themselves, the 
example of the noble men of Berea, and adduced 
the command of the Lord, “ Search the Scriptures,” 1 
and at the same time reminded him of the promise 
given to all believers, that the Holy Spirit would lead 
them unto all truth, he violently reproached them as 
“enthusiasts,” and dismissed them with the words, “The 
Holy Ghost comes only through the office, in the divine 
authority of which ye do not believe.” The Rhenish 
Churches reject such an idea of the sacred office, and 
take up an opposite view. 

1 John v. 29. 


162 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

Their view may be thus represented : The idea of 
mediation, as appertaining to the ministerial office, as 
it at present here and there, in the evangelical Church, 
seeks for itself expression, finds its support, it is true, 
in a tradition extending hack over more than a thou- 
sand years ; but it rests in a falsehood, in a delusion, and 
not in the truth. The first act of the Reformation, 
in which its whole principle immediately manifested 
itself, and which, therefore, had all the succeeding acts 
as its natural and necessary development, was a decided 
protest against the traditional Romish conception of the 
sacred office. Not only supported by the word, “ By 
one offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that 
are sanctified/ 51 did it reject every atoning act in the 
Church as a denial of the sacrifice of Christ ; but it 
assailed, as a false opinion, and opposed to the Gospel, 
the notion that Christ had entrusted, with the exclusive 
administration of the treasure of His grace, a class of 
priests peculiarly privileged above the community of 
the faithful, and different from them. According to 
the doctrine of all the Reformers, and especially ac- 
cording to Luther’s doctrine, the word, the sacraments, 
and the power of the keys, are given to the whole 
community of believers. Christ did not renounce His 
threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King, but con- 
tinues still to execute it within the domain of His 
Church. But His Church, as a servant entrusted by 
Him with His office, must work, and must by the 
Word bring blessings to herself and others, must 
administer the sacraments for her own enjoyment and 
quickening, and for that of others, and, in His name, 
bind and loose — that is, must announce salvation to all 
who are penitent, and’ proclaim the law of justice and 
1 Heb. x. 14. 


ELBERFELD. 


163 


judgment against all who are impenitent. But because 
He wishes that within His Church it should ordinarily 
be so arranged, because, moreover, not all can dis- 
charge those duties, which perhaps they have the right 
and authority to perform, and finally, because if all 
made use of theii* authority, the general edification 
would thereby suffer, He has so ordained it, that indi- 
viduals particularly gifted and endowed in the Church 
should be commissioned to represent the Church, 
by publicly preaching the Gospel, administering the 
sacraments, and exercising the power of the keys of 
discipline. 

He has instituted the office of pastor, or shepherd of 
the people. “ But are the shepherds also messengers, 
instead of the Church ?” No ; they are messengers in 
the stead of Christ, as the Church is called to be so ; 
and they are only herein the mouth and the hand of 
the Church, the organ of the Church. “ But is there, 
then, no distinction between the priesthood of the 
ordained shepherd and teacher, and the general priest- 
hood of all believers ?” No other than that the 
former appears in a regular public ministry, and the 
latter does not so appear. Yet through the separation 
to that ministry, the person so called enters into no 
higher rights and privileges, conveying to him author- 
ity, than they enjoy who are already believing members 
of the Church. As invested with ecclesiastical author- 
ity, he does not stand in a more immediate and direct 
relation to God than He did before. He brings, by virtue 
of His official position, nothing new to the word and 
sacraments as means of salvation* It is even possible 
that many of the laity who sit at the feet of him who 
exercises the sacred ministry, have a deeper insight into 
the meaning of the Scriptures, and know-how to speak 


164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the word with greater unction, and more efficaciously 
and impressively to urge upon men the truth, for their 
conviction as well as for their consolation, than he does ; 
yea, that all the members of his congregation may have 
had all their sins forgiven immediately by the Lord, 
before he has announced to them absolution. The 
minister remains a member of the great spiritual 
body, whose head is Christ, along with the other 
members. He needs their help as well as they need 
his. The grace of the office he holds is essentially 
none other than that which is common, which all 
believers glory in, though it manifests itself in other 
forms of operation. 

Let us hear Luther ! “ Word, sacrament, and the 

keys, are given to the Church, i.e. to the people of 
Christ, over the wide world. We are all priests, and 
we have equally the same right to the Word of God, 
and to each of the sacraments. We all become priests 
by baptism. Injustice is done to the little words, 
‘ Priester, , ‘ Pfaff, ' ‘ Geistlich, ’ 1 and the like, when 
they are used with reference to a little section as 
separate from the general body of the Christian com- 
munity — when they are applied to those in the sacred 
office. Yet there must be order observed, and a public 
testimony made. * Therefore, from among such as are 
priests by baptism, some are selected and appointed to 
this special office that they may, in behalf of all of us, 
perform the duties of such an office. Do you ask, what 

1 A “ Priester,” one who performs the religious rite of sacrifice ; a priest. 
This title is retained in the Roman Catholic Church, because he who 
officiates at the mass is regarded as performing a sacrifice. “ Pfaff” is gene- 
rally spoken in contempt, as designating a “ Priester.” “ Geistlich ” is 
applied to all those who devote themselves to religious duties, as distin- 
guished from the laity. These words are, however, sometimes used indis- 
criminately. — T r. 


ELBERFELD. 


165 


then the difference is between the priesthood and the 
laity in the Christian Church, since all are priests ? 
I answer : The Holy Scriptures recognise no difference 
but this, that it calls those who are so chosen and 
ordained ‘ servants/ 4 ministers/ 4 stewards/ who are, 
on that account, required to preach to others Christ 
and the faith, and Christian freedom, which all who are 
Christ’s participate in. For though we are all equally 
priests, yet we cannot all equally perform the functions 
of a servant, or a steward, or a preacher of Christ. By 
consecration to his office, the 4 Pfaff ’ does not become 
holier or better than all baptized Christians are. If 
thou art not willing to confess to a 4 Pfaff/ take a man, 
whether a layman or a priest, and confess to him ; and 
as he says to thee, so let it be to thee an absolution. 
Every Christian is a Father-confessor. When St Paul 
says, 44 Who also hath made us able ministers of the New 
Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit/’ 1 he 
speaks to all Christians ; yet can they not all equally 
preach, although they may all have the same authority 
to do so.” Thus far Luther. 

Whence did the Reformers derive their free concep- 
tions of the office of the ministry ? They partly inferred 
them from the fundamental Gospel doctrine of the jus- 
tification of the sinner by grace through faith in Christ, 
and partly they appealed in support of them to the ex- 
press testimony of the Holy Scriptures. According to the 
doctrine of justification by faith, all believers, as they 
are purified and reconciled to God by one sacrifice, and 
are baptized into one body by one Spirit, have an equal 
claim to all the treasures of grace of the New Testa- 
ment, and the same right to a free and an immediate 
to the throne of grace. No one is needed to 
1 2 Cor. jii. 6. 


access 


166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

open the door of entrance before they can come ; it 
stands wide open for all of them, and they no longer 
need a representative and a mediator between them- 
selves and God. They are, in truth, as members of 
one organized body, brought into relation to one another 
for mutual spiritual assistance ; and whoever renders this 
help in the form of a public service to the whole body 
of the Church, renders it not by a special spiritual en- 
dowment which he possesses, and by a special authority 
conferred on him, but as animated by the one spirit 
which is common to all, and from the authority which 
all possess ; nor has he received the rich spiritual gifts 
he may probably be endowed with through his consecra- 
tion to the ministerial office, but he has been separated 
to that office on account of the charisma which was seen 
to be already in him. 

The Scripture says : “ Christ gave some, apostles ; 
and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, 
pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ.” 1 All those here named exercise no 
other priesthood than that of all Christians. The 
apostles alone exercise their office by virtue of a char- 
isma which was limited only to them, and was not con- 
ferred on the community of believers ; the charisma 
given them for the founding of the Church, according 
to a divinely appointed form, free from all error, that 
testimony might be authoritatively given of Christ and 
His word. It was appropriate for them to say, “Though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel 
unto you than that which we have preached unto 
you, let him be accursed/' 2 The apostleship, in the 
specific meaning of the word, was confined wholly 
1 Ephes. iv. 11, 12. . 2 Ga l. i. 8. 


ELBERFELD. 


167 


to the twelve. The apostles did not take up an autho- 
ritative, much less a mediatory place, with reference 
to the Church, beyond that special call they had 
to the office in which they were only the bidxom 
(ministers) of Christ. They were not the founders of 
a privileged clerical institute. The power of the 
keys did not belong exclusively to them, but, accord- 
ing to the words of Matthew 1 and John , 2 to the 
entire- body of believers. The sacraments were not 
rightly administered, only when they administered 
them. The deacon Philip baptized, and believers 
broke bread from house to house, without the presence 
of the apostles among them. The testimony given to 
the truth was as efficacious in its power to convey the 
blessing of salvation, when given forth from the mouth 
of the believing laity, as when preached by the apos- 
tles. According to the Acts of the Apostles , 3 those 
disciples who were driven by persecution from Jeru- 
salem, went everywhere preaching the Gospel of the 
cross of Christ with success. We nowhere read that 
the Church had to wait on the apostles as on those 
who must first pour out upon them, as from some 
vessel, the grace of salvation from God. They hailed 
with great gladness the presence of these helpers of 
their joy, and instructors in the truth and in the ser- 
vice of God. But if the apostles communicated the 
gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, the 
Church well knew that they did this, not by virtue of 
their office, but by virtue of their faith; and if they 
felt themselves greatly comforted by them, they did 
not attribute it to them as men who were priests in 

1 Matt, xviii. 17, 18, “ If lie shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the 
church,” &c. 

2 Jno. xx. 21, &c. 


3 Acts viii. 4. 


168 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


some other sense different from that in which they also 
were priests, and as set in charge over fountains of 
consolation to which they, the laity, had no freedom of 
access, hut as more enlightened and more experienced 
brethren, who, moreover, were not ashamed to confess 
that they on their part also needed to be comforted 
by them. 

If, then, even the apostles, by their official position, 
were able to contribute nothing either to the efficacy of 
the revealed Word, or to the power of the sacraments, 
and, by virtue of their character as apostles, had it in 
their power to boast themselves neither of a more inti- 
mate relation to God, nor yet of more enlarged author- 
ity over the divine blessings of salvation, nor of a more 
valid proclamation of pardon to penitent sinners, than 
other believers enjoyed; how much less will this be the 
case with the succeeding guides of the Church, bishops, 
or presbyters ? These, on the ground of their chris- 
matic endowment, conferred on them by virtue of 
their selection from the number of the faithful, and not 
exclusively confined to preaching, distinguish them- 
selves from the other members of the congregation by 
nothing else than this, that, with the view of preserv- 
ing order in the Church, they exercise publicly, and as 
the great business to which their lives are consecrated, 
the functions for the purpose of which they have been 
invested with power and authority. 

Such are the conceptions of the office of a minister 
of the Gospel, as they were at all times held in the 
Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, and even in the 
Lutheran Church ; and they were all the more vigor- 
ously expressed, as the Romish propaganda pressed 
hard against them there. 

It is known that the Rhenish Church sprung into 


ELBERFELD. 


169 


existence along with its present constitution and form 
of government, the presbyterial-synodical . 1 As this 
form of government has existed in that Church unin- 
terruptedly, as a source of blessing to it, for three 
hundred years, while, at the same time, the pure 
Gospel has been always preached in it with power, 
Rationalism was never able to gain footing within its 
borders, and sects that rose up were always sooner or 
later overpowered by the general intelligence prevailing 
in the Church. If it be asked whether this constitution 
ever paralysed and oppressed us the preachers, I must 
confess — and in this I know that I utter the sentiments 
of all who were then my colleagues — that, on the whole, 
we could speak and boast only of a quickening, ani- 
mating influence furthering our work, which it exerted 
upon us. How could it be otherwise, since I might 
say that a kind of natural tact led the congregations to 
elect from among themselves as their elders, deacons, 
and representatives, only the men most attached to the 
Church, and most deeply interested in its welfare ? And 
the old liturgical formulas, solemnly read every year to 
the congregations, had this result also, that they made 


1 The form of Church government in Prussia is the consistorial. The 
king, as head of the Church, exercises his authority through the courts 
called consistories, which are composed of clergymen and lawyers selected 
by himself. Each province has a separate consistory. Having authority 
over all the consistories, there is an upper consistory (Oberkirchenrath), 
composed for the most part of professors of theology and other clergymen. 
The congregations have no voice in the management of their own interests, 
further than having the right to veto, for sufficient reason, any new ap- 
pointment of a minister over them. The Oberkirchenrath has, however, 
attempted at various times, within these recent years, to organize separate 
parish Church courts, but with indifferent success. In the western pro- 
vinces, Westphalia and the Rhine, the Presbyterian form of Church 
government has always prevailed. In each of these provinces there is a 
royal consistory, but it rarely interferes with the popular form of Church 
government. — T r. 


L 


170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

prominent the high importance of these Church offices, 
as well as the sacred obligations resting on those who 
filled them. 

Perhaps it happened now and then that, in individual 
strong-minded persons, the proud consciousness of then- 
being presbyters 1 overstepped the measure of propriety, 
and sought for itself, for some time, a supremacy in the 
Church courts which, to the view of the clergy, ap- 
peared somewhat threatening. Yet they were always 
men of the best intentions with whom one had to 
transact, and so the moment did not fail to come when 
the opposition adjusted itself, and the relation in which 
all stood to one another returned to what was right and 
proper. Here there was one family which before all 
others I must make mention of, which, because of their 
remarkable natural talents, their energy in action, and 
their decision of character, seemed born to rule, so that 
I ventured to prognosticate with confidence, more than 
twenty years before it happened, that one of its members 
would occupy the seat of a minister. The oligarchical 
position which this family for a long time took up in 
the sphere of civil society, as well as in the sphere of 
the Church, was very disagreeable to many. Yet it 
must be granted to them that they always sought to 
promote the best interests of the town and of the 
Church ; and their readiness to make sacrifices, and 
their munificence, never remained behind their zeal for 
the object they strove to accomplish. However the 
people lifted up their heels against their aristocratic 
bearing, yet they were in many ways a great blessing 
to the congregation, although afterwards, through then- 
persevering, unrelenting consistency, they went to such 
a length that they drove off a party from it. 

1 Ruling presbyters, i.e. elders. 


ELBERFELD. 


171 


The year 1835 was, for the Church-life of the congre- 
gation, one that was full of disaster. As upon the 
Rhenish Church generally, so also upon it the new 
Agenda was forced, not perhaps according to the will of 
the civil authorities, but rather by the chief ecclesiasti- 
cal courts. Bishop Boss, in whom, as a man held in 
high esteem in the Rhine province, the hope of suc- 
cess in this endeavour was founded, was entrusted with 
the carrying out of the project. The tidings of his 
arrival, and of the object of his mission, however, gave 
the signal to a universal movement in opposition to 
such a scheme. The renunciation which was de- 
manded of them of their ancient time-hallowed formu- 
laries, and of their “ simple, beautiful order of Divine 
worship,” appeared to the congregation to be almost 
like a change of their confession, yea, like a very apos- 
tasy. The most decided remonstrances against it were 
put forth, and from time to time renewed. But when 
the commissioner, in other respects so mild, and a lover 
of peace and freedom, appeared all at once stern, and 
put on the mien of a grand inquisitor, and — from 
what power I am not able to judge — threatened the 
clergy with depositions which he kept concealed in his 
pocket, if the opposition were persisted in, then a small 
majority of the representatives of the congregation con- 
sented, with the greatest reluctance it is true, to the 
acceptance of the minimum of what was offered to them : 
namely, to accept the so-called small liturgy, with the 
omission, however, of the choruses and the responses, and 
with the addition to it of the Sabbath-morning prayer in 
use in the old Reformed Church. That was accepted, in 
the meantime, as all the amount of concession that could 
be obtained ; but it was very far from restoring quietness 
to the congregation. However insignificant and almost 


1/2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

only formal the liturgical addition to the usual service 
of the sanctuary might he made to appear, the congre- 
gation nevertheless saw in this small patch the detested 
signs of a foreign power oppressing the free Church, and 
distrust, when once awakened, saw in it even some- 
thing more. Enough. The edification of the congrega- 
tion was, in consequence of this vexatious business, 
seriously interfered with. 

Instead of the pure unrestrained joy with which the 
people were wont to respond to the summons of the Sab- 
bath bells, their minds were for the time discomposed. 
Instead of conversing, as they had been wont to do in 
their social circles, about the Word of God, the “ Agenda” 
now occupied the uppermost place in their minds. Be- 
tween those who were inclined to yield the point, and 
the “ Totalers ” (the extreme party of opposition), there 
was a painful division ; and it at length came to this, that 
a not inconsiderable portion of the latter party, and 
among them were persons whose loss we had reason to 
mourn over, separated themselves from the congrega- 
tion, and constituted themselves into an independent 
“ Ecclesiola,” which continues to the present day. 
Indeed, the efforts to bring about uniformity at that 
time in the matter of Church government were by no 
means wise. Whatever urgent need there might be in 
the eastern provinces for the new Agenda, the Bhenish 
Churches which were at peace in the enjoyment of their 
Christian privileges, and satisfied with the liturgical 
treasures they had inherited from their fathers, could 
well dispense with it. It was at a later period seen to 
be a mistake that due importance was not given to the 
congregational and confessional peculiarities of the dif- 
ferent ecclesiastical circles of the country. For many 
years the last traces of the lamentable “ Agenda Con- 


ELBERFELD. 


173 


troversy” have, with the sanction of the highest 
authorities, entirely disappeared from the forms of wor- 
ship as observed in my former congregation at Elber- 
feld. How much disturbance, confusion, and injury 
to the spiritual prosperity of the Church would be 
spared if men were sensible enough beforehand to call 
to remembrance the words : “ It seemed good to the 
Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater 
burden than these necessary things ! ” 1 

It has often been said, as a reproach to the Rhine- 
landers, that they are not genuine Prussians. But in 
this reproach great injustice is done to them. One 
might perhaps find amongst them a few who would not 
shrink from the thought that they ought to belong to 
some other State than that of Prussia. They know, 
indeed, too well what they have become through their 
incorporation with Prussia, and how, from that time, 
not only their remarkable prosperity, and their com- 
mercial and industrial activity, but also even the essen- 
tial advancement of their intellectual culture, is to be 
dated. But it is nevertheless true that the spirit of 
patriotism, with its specific Prussian national conscious- 
ness, with its pride of historic traditions, and with its 
hereditary, and, as if inborn, pious veneration not only 
for the house of its ancient rulers, but also for the 
whole of its nobles, and with its respect for the 
uniform and the profession of the soldier, and the 
panoply of war, has not yet gained such a deep hold 
over them as it has over the Prussians in the old pro- 
vinces. They are good Prussian subjects, not, how- 
ever* so much from instinct, as rather from deliberate 
choice. Whoever may feel surprised at this should 
think how many changes of government they have 
1 Acts xv. 28. 


174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR IvRUMMACHER. 


already experienced, and how recent is their annexation 
to their new Fatherland . 1 It must be regarded as a 
misfortune that the image of a true Prussian has 
always hovered before their minds in the form of a 
Berliner. They conceive of him, perhaps, as a person 
well-dressed, clothed with the appearance of fashion, 
but as a windy talker, whose word is not to be de- 
pended upon, as one who, stepping boldly forward, 
with high bombastic talk, acts the part of a learned 
man, and is accustomed, in speaking, to say “ We” as 
if he were a member of the king’s cabinet, who boldly 
criticises every one, and with his senseless attempts at 
wit, reveals a certain sentimentalism, which speaks, 
however, rather of the theatre, than makes itself 
worthy of notice by presenting anything that has the 
breath of true feeling. These are mere peculiarities, 
which stand diametrically opposed to those which 
characterise the inhabitants of the Lower Bhine, and 
particularly the people of Berg, who love all that is 
solid and true, and manifest in this respect a sobriety 
often culminating in the extreme of prosaic plainness. 
In their social intercourse, they exhibit a directness in 
their style of conversation which frequently degene- 
rates into thoughtless rudeness, and not seldom a 
frankness and nonchalance which borders on incivility, 
coarseness, and insolence. But already, by the fre- 
quency and facility of communication between the 
provinces, by the general military service in which all 
must take part, the process of naturalization has been 
essentially advanced, and the people of Berg, in spite 

1 The Province of the Rhine is composed of territory taken in 1814 from 
France and the Grand-duchy of Berg, which formerly belonged to the 
Elector of Bavaria. At the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, the Rhine pro- 
vince was given to Prussia, and has since formed a part of that kingdom. 


ELBERFELD. 


175 


of the hindrances which have grown up in their his- 
tory, from their natural disposition, their confession, 
their customs, and defects, will emerge from the pro- 
cess true normal Prussians. 

As such I saw them when, in the year 1833, the 
now deceased King Frederick William iv., then, as 
crown-prince, in all the grace of his youthful dignity, 
and adorned with all those endowments of mind and 
those excellences of character which distinguished him, 
visited the Rhine province. The genuine enthusiasm 
with which this amiable prince was everywhere saluted 
and accompanied was beyond all description. Never 
did the loyalty of any people exhibit itself so worthily 
as on that occasion. The countenance of every one 
was lighted up with joy, if but a sight of the prince 
was obtained ; and they to whom he addressed a 
friendly word, or to whom he stretched out his right 
hand, felt themselves as raised to the very pinnacle of 
happiness. He spent a Sabbath in the Wupperthal, 
and it devolved upon me, by his express wish, although 
I lived in Barmen, to preach on that day, the 20th 
October, in the High Church of Elberfeld. I subjoin 
the sermon preached on that occasion. 


“ And at that time Solomon, held a feast , and all Israel with 
him , a great congregation , from the entering in of Hamath unto 
the river of Egypt , before the Lord our God , seven days and 
seven days , even fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the 
people away: and they blessed the king , and went unto their 
tents joyful and glad of heart , for all the goodness that the Lord 
had done for David His servant , and for Israel His people ” — 

1 Kings viii. 65, 66. 

These words we have read place us in the midst of 
a scene which was one of the grandest in the whole 


176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

history of Israel. They bring ns into the midst of a 
great national festival. It is thousands of years indeed 
since the joyful notes which sounded forth on that day 
were heard ; but it seems to me as if they still echoed 
and lived anew, vibrating in a lofty strain on the harp- 
strings of our hearts. Come, let us draw near and 
contemplate for a little, more closely, this great festival 
in Israel. And first let us consider the object of the 
festival, and then the festival itself 

I. We find ourselves in Jerusalem. Never was the 
city in a higher excitement of joy than it is to-day. The 
people have streamed in crowds into it from all parts of 
the land, from the river of Egypt even unto Lebanon. 
Every countenance is radiant with joy ; the words of 
praise and thanksgiving are on every lip. What does 
all this mean ? It is not the song of victory we hear. 
For years the valiant sword of Judah has slumbered in 
its sheath undisturbed, and the banner of peace has 
waved from the summit of Mount Zion. It is a joy of 
a different kind that now moves the people. It is a joy 
unmixed and incomparably holy. No ; this festival has 
no bloody field as the background on which it rests. 
The whole of the joyful excitement among the people 
is stirred up by their zeal for the Lord, and their 
interest in His worship. You all remember how, on one 
occasion, David with amiable humility once cried out, 
“ See, now I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of 
God dwelleth within curtains!” 1 What “that man 
after God's own heart ” dared meanwhile only to desire 
the accomplishment of, and to prepare for, was now 
brought to a successful issue by Solomon. The sacred 
temple now stands completed on the summit of Mount 

1 2 Sam. vii. 2. 


ELBERFELD. 


177 


Moriah ; a building which is a monument of faith ; a 
psalm of praise to Jehovah in stone and lime. But 
that which carries away the people with such excite- 
ment of joy is not the stone walls they see rise before 
them, or the beautiful and richly adorned rows of pillars. 
It is the solemn purpose for which the building is 
erected, to he the dwelling-place of the Most High. 
It is the circumstance that the Holy One of Israel has 
now found an house to dwell in, where He may mani- 
fest Himself among His chosen ; no longer as a guest 
sojourning among them, but having a fixed habitation. 
Now, for the first time, He has His home in Judah. 
For His priests who served Him, and for their signifi- 
cant acts of worship, there is now afforded ample and 
fitting space. The people see all this accomplished, 
and their hearts swell with gladness. That which 
gave delight to the people made Solomon, their great 
king, also glad at heart. He rejoices and praises the 
Lord with them. 

I might, indeed, well envy. Israel the joy of that day. 
Yet, lo ! my eye rests on my people, my country ; and 
what do I perceive ? O surely here is more than Solo- 
mon's temple ! Here stands forth the temple of living 
stones, whose foundation is Christ. Here the Lord 
meets me, not amid the darkness, or behind a veil, but 
with open face. Here is the reality, while on Zion 
there was only seen the shadow. Here is the blood 
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Here 
is the true mercy-seat, the true ark of the covenant, the 
sacrifice which perfecteth for ever them that are sancti- 
fied, the High Priest who has for us entered into 
Heaven to present us to the Father, clothed in His 
own righteousness. And . . . But why should I say 
more? Yes, brethren, if ye wish to ask me which 


178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


among all the nations of the earth I consider as that 
which has been chiefly chosen by God as the Israel of 
the New Covenant, with gladness of heart I bear testi- 
mony that it is you — you, my German people ! and I 
could with ease give proof that this belief of mine is 
not unfounded. 

I might begin my proof by uncovering to you the 
depths of the German language, which, like that of 
ancient Israel, was formed, as no other has been, into a 
language of the sanctuary. Before that Gospel came 
to us, it carried it, as if in the germ, in its bosom. 
This language expressed already, from the beginning, 
the truth, that whatever God commands is law 
(“ Gesetz ”), i.e. firmly fixed and immovable ; the viola- 
tion of the “ Gesetz” is sin (“ Siinde”), that is, some- 
thing that must be expiated; the greatest wretch- 
edness of man is his “Elend” (misery), his being 
made a foreigner, his banishment and estrangement 
from his father’s house ; for the bringing him back from 
his estrangement there must be the propitiation (“ ver- 
sohnung ”), the stihnung (expiation), and that by the 
Son. Thus I might go on to show you the wonderful 
depth of our language, and to prove that it had Chris- 
tian ideas pervading it at its very formation, so as to 
prepare it beforehand for being able to receive and em- 
body the message from Christ. Thousands of expres- 
sions I could mention, which lay ready from the begin- 
ning, prepared through a divine influence presiding 
over their formation, as so many vessels and forms into 
which the ideas of the divine revelation might be received 
as soon as revealed. No other language is so capable 
of receiving these ideas, of preserving them in their full 
force, and of transmitting them in their pure and un- 
encumbered truthfulness, as is our German language. 


ELBERFELD. 


179 


The formation and structure of our language will also 
account for the circumstance that the German transla- 
tion of the Bible, among all that have been executed, 
stands in the fore-ground as the most noteworthy, 
and pervaded by the deepest and most hallowed 
unction. 

I might further remind you that our German Father- 
land, like ancient Israel, has been richly blessed by God 
with the precious gift of true sacred art, as no other 
land has. I might, for instance, place before you the 
old domes towering heavenward, as thoughtful copies 
of the Temple of Israel, which found their first models 
in the devotion and the faith of the German Church. 
I might bring before you all our sacred images that 
have come to us from ancient times, which, as if some 
Christian Bezaleel had breathed upon them, bear on 
their fore-front, as no others do, the stamp of the deepest 
evangelical life. But especially would I have you to 
observe that it was our Church that gave birth to the 
chorale, the truly hallowed Christian mode of offering 
the sacrifice of praise, and that it was the Church of 
our Fatherland also which received by inheritance the 
harp of David, attuned to New Testament song. She 
possesses the evangelical psalm, the true Church hymn. 
She first struck the key-note ; other Churches have only 
prolonged it. 

I could also open before you the year-book of the 
history of our Fatherland, and unveil to you the re- 
semblances between the divine method of the education 
of our people and the training of ancient Israel. I 
might show you how the theocracy of Israel has no- 
where found so true an image and counterpart as it 
has in the relation subsisting between the German 
people and their rulers— a relation bearing in it the 


180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


idea of a lieutenancy in the name of God, such as is 
taught by the eternal Word, and is firmly rooted in 
all our hearts. Our monarch's crown has always been 
seen by us as all-radiant with the glory of an immediate 
divine investiture, and Church and State have never 
been so closely, so inwardly united as they have been 
in our land. 

I might, in illustration of the same truth, summon 
before you the bands of prophets and evangelists with 
whom the Lord has blessed our people as He has not 
any other nation ; and I might remind you, in addition, 
how the brightest constellations which hundreds of years 
ago illuminated the horizon of the Church, arose in by 
far the largest number from out of the bosom of our 
German Church. I might prove to you how no Church 
ever enjoyed so great a fulness of evangelical light as 
ours ; yea, how it was called to be the moon to catch 
and reflect again upon the world the rays of the Sun 
of Righteousness. I might bring before your eyes the 
man who, as a light moving amid the darkness, worthy 
almost to stand by the side of Paul and Peter, the 
valiant hero for the truth of Cod, who was ordained 
not only to bless his own age, but to extend his influ- 
ence for good to succeeding centuries — the man whose 
torch, kindled at the fire of the Gospel, yet to the 
present day diffuses its blissful fight over the whole 
earth, from pole to pole ; and for this great office he 
was, as it were prophetically, pointed out in a very 
remarkable historical manner. For the Galatians, to 
whom that letter was written — a letter which prin- 
cipally contains the very kernel and the central prin- 
ciple of the Gospel, the doctrine of justification by 
faith alone without works — were, according to an old 
tradition, of German origin, perhaps from the neighbour- 


ELBERFELD. 


181 


hood of the Elbe, and were carried over Italy under 
the leadership of a Lothar or Luther into Asia Minor. 
And lo, many hundreds of years later, in the same 
region, a Luther again appears, who kindles his torch 
at that letter to the Galatians, and receives a com- 
mission from God to give back to the Church, in all 
their unveiled glory, the doctrines taught in this 
epistle, and to lead His people a second time, only in 
a holier sense, to Galatia ! 

But why should we proceed further in this direction? 
I only wished, in a few cursory remarks, to point out 
how my statement might be illustrated and proved, 
that God intended great things for our people, such as 
might be regarded as ordained for none other than the 
Israel of the New Covenant. And, indeed, it were easy 
to multiply such illustrations and proofs, and those 
things which might seem of an opposite character it 
would not be difficult to explain. It is true we 
lament, with bitter sorrow, that even in our land there 
has been manifested the spirit of a falling away from 
the Word of truth. But the poisonous plant of the 
false doctrine did not grow up in our land . 1 Even in 

1 Modem infidelity, the product of that general lethargy which fell upon 
the Churches after the Reformation, first developed itself among the so- 
called English Deists. Voltaire, then known by his assumed name, 
Francois Arouet, came over to England in 1725. He adopted the infidelity 
of Morgan and Tindal, and especially that of the profligate and superficial 
Bolingbroke, secretary of state under Queen Anne, and carried it back with 
him to France. Rousseau, who also gathered his weapons from England as 
Voltaire did (he died also in the same year as Voltaire, 1778), exerted a 
wide influence by his writings, where infidelity appeared in a form not so 
rude and offensive as it did in those of Voltaire, in undermining all faith 
in Christianity. The infidel party in France grew in numbers, and became 
bolder. They issued their great work, the “ Encyclopedic Universelle,” 
edited by D’Alembert and Diderot, which very materially aided in the 
wider diffusion of those principles which at length showed their tendency in 
the open war, which began in 1793, against all that was holy— the Revolu- 
tion, with all its horrors and blasphemies. 


182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HR KRUMMACHER. 

the worst times, however, the falling away has, through 
the grace of God, never become general. Of that the 
hills and valleys which surround us here in a wide 
circle can give joyful testimony. And finally, in these 
recent times, in the region of science and intellectual 
culture, there has arisen a crisis which sheds upon us a 
silver light, and casting its hopeful radiance over the 
foaming, boiling cauldron of the present conflict, fills us 
with the expectation of coming good ; yea, leads us to 
the belief, that in the hidden future there lies the 


Diderot was called to the court of Catherine II. of Russia, and infected 
the nobility there with the poison of the French infidelity, which was but a 
development of the English Deism. 

The works of the English Deists, first imported by way of France, were 
for the most part translated into the German language, and widely circu- 
lated throughout Germany. Their principles readily took root, the soil 
having been in some measure prepared for them. David Hume’s “ Essay 
on Miracles” was very popular in Germany, and intensified the infidel 
spirit which was fostered by the works of the English Deists, and by the 
writings of Voltaire and the French school. Voltaire, who was called to 
Berlin (1750) by Frederick the Great, diffused among the literati, of whom 
for a time he was the admired and acknowledged head, of the Prussian 
capital, and by them through the whole of Germany, and particularly 
among the higher classes, the taint of the frivolous French Naturalism. 
The king, surrounded by French Free-thinkers, showed his subjects the 
example of scoffing at all positive religion. The great German organ of 
this “ Illuminism ” was the Berlin journal (1765-92), the Allgemeine Deutsche 
Bibliothek, which introduced from France and England all manner of infidel 
arguments and objections, and scattered them throughout Germany. 
Illuminism invaded the sphere of the theologian, and created Rationalism, 
from the withering blight of which Germany is but now recovering. 
Scepticism has there now spent itself, and has been proved to be but 
vanity. 

Kant’s (died 1804) philosophy sprang out of David Hume’s infidelity, 
and it- is well known how extensive has been the influence of that phil- 
osophy, as modified by Fichte (died 1814), Fries (died 1843), Schelling 
(died 1854), and Hegel (died 1831), in the interests of rationalism and 
infidelity. 

Thus it may justly be said that infidelity and rationalism in Ger- 
many are of foreign origin, and not the natural product of the soil 
—Tr. 


ELBERFELD. 


183 


gracious purpose of the Lord to usher in a new Refor- 
mation. 

Germany, the Israel of the New Covenant times ! O 
pleasant heart-quickening thought! May it become 
more and more evident that it is even so ! But is it 
true — my Fatherland in a narrower sense, may I not 
venture to salute thee as the Benjamin and Judah in 
this Israel ? Yea, the Lord deals in a specially graci- 
ous manner with thee, thou dear Prussia ; with thee, 
before all lands, it is evident that thou thyself mayest be 
taken as a proof that the eyes of God are continually 
open in grace and mercy over the whole boundaries of 
Germany. That we are not worthy of all this His 
goodness, is among all clear things the clearest. No, 
O Lord, we are less than the least of all such love ; 
unworthy of all that mercy and faithfulness Thou hast 
shown toward us, and art still making to pass before 
us up to this present hour! 

It cannot be mistaken that, out of the dark tumult 
of battle of that never-to-be-forgotten October day , 1 
the morning-dawn of a new era broke over us — that 
the knees bent to the earth on the bloody battle-field, 
as well as the cross borne on the helmets of our brave 
soldiers, without its being so intended, were a signifi- 

1 Alluding to the memorable Volkerschlacht (battle of nations), which 
was fought at Leipsic (16th-18th October 1813) between the Allies and 
the French, who were led by Napoleon in person. The Allies were com- 
pletely victorious, and pursued the French across the Rhine. They then 
entered Paris, and the Congress of Vienna met to re-arrange the affairs of 
Europe. The “ Confederation of the Rhine,” formed by Napoleon in 1806, 
with himself as protector, was now dissolved ; Europe was emancipated 
from the French yoke, and Germany was freed from the humiliation of 
foreign domination, which it had for seven years endured. The “ Liberation 
Wars,” terminated by the bloody battle of Leipsic, introduced a new era 
into the development of Germany ; a spirit of moral earnestness widely 
diffused itself among the people, and they entered on a new career of reli- 
gious and intellectual elevation. — T r. 


184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


can’t symbol, and afforded a kind of prophetic pre- 
intimation of the near outshining of a new and glorious 
day. That it is even so, the present aspects of the 
times give token in many thousand ways. I look 
round upon our land. Yes, praise the Lord, 0 my 
soul ! The Lord is among us, the Lord is with us ! 
What do I see ? In the Church, a new awakening to 
life ; in science, unmistakably a more earnest effort of 
mind, a deeper necessity felt ; on the Universities there 
have fallen again the tongues of fire which bear witness 
for Christ ; from the pulpits there is heard more and 
more, in new and distinct utterances, the proclamation 
of the old good Word ; in the seminaries of learning a 
powerful process of development is going on towards a 
more evangelical form of culture ; and along with these 
there are flourishing mission schools under the shelter 
of a gentle royal sceptre, Bible societies in full and 
unwearied activity, institutions aiming at the promo- 
tion of the welfare of the neglected and the criminal. 
And what is yet more than all this, there are not incon- 
siderable bands of men, constantly increasing in number 
in all districts of the land, among all classes and condi- 
tions of society, who have sworn that they will never 
more bow the knee to Baal ; a company of praying men 
encompassing the land as with a chain, diffusing bless- 
ings all around. And if further evidences be needed 
to prove that God is with us, consider that at a time 
when here and there the most sacred bonds were rent 
asunder by traitor hands, our people gave a cheering 
proof that true fidelity had not yet altogether dis- 
appeared from the earth. In the days when, around our 
borders, a gulf opened its fearful mouth to vomit forth 
into the world spirits accursed of God, then the Prus- 
sian people gathered more closely in a compact circle of 


ELBERFELD. 


185 


defence around the throne of their ruler. And if a fire 
now burns among us, it is the fire of an enthusiastic 
and ardent love for the dear house of our ancestral 
prince. And the fearful commotions that here and 
there arise, are able to exert no wider influence upon 
us than is necessary to call forth the most glorious pro- 
testations against the profane spirit they display. Truly 
it is evident, and the circumstances powerfully con- 
firm the judgment, that the Lord has not yet forsaken 
us with His grace. 

And what shall I more say ? I am silent — Oh, your 
own hearts know well how to follow out that line of 
thought which here opens before me ! An essential 
ingredient in the cup of Israel's joy at that festival was 
the circumstance that the king himself carried before 
his people the banner of Zion, and, deeply rooted in the 
faith of his fathers, walked in the peaceful pilgrim path 
of those who pass through this world as strangers on a 
journey to that city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God. One of the notes of praise 
sounding from their harp was the consciousness that a 
ruler stood at their head who adorned the crown he 
wore, a crown which, wherever it appeared, was the joy- 
ous token, full of promise to all the people, of peace and 
safety. This crown came not forth from the workshop 
of an earthly artist. It was not formed by the hands 
of man. It was not made of perishable materials. 
That was the crown of Solomon, that the kindness 
and love of God had shone upon him. It was the 
fairest diadem, the richest ornament, that he appeared 
seated on his throne as a man whose countenance con- 
strained the Queen of Sheba to cry out, “ Blessed be 
the Lord thy God which delighted in thee, to set thee on 
the throne of Israel ! ” When Israel thought thereon, 
M 


186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the jubilee-song of the people rose higher, and sounded 
forth in clearer notes, and all countenances were radiant 
with joy and hope. Once more I am silent — what I 
might further say to you already your own hearts pro- 
claim to you in the joy which pervades them. Yes, 
brethren, it is clear as day, if any nation has now occasion 
and ground to echo in full accord that festival gladness 
of ancient Israel, then, people of Prussia, it is you ; you, 
among whom there have been always seen the shining 
footsteps of the tender love of God — a people whose 
greatness and splendour gleam out into the remotest 
distance, and in whom is anew fulfilled what is written 
of Israel under the reign of Jehoshaphat : “ And the 
fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdom of the lands 
that were round about Judah, so that they made no 
war against Jehoshaphat.” 

II. How did Israel celebrate the festival ? We read : 
“ And Solomon at that time held a feast, and all Israel 
with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of 
Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the Lord our 
God.” Hear ye this? “Before the Lord!” Thus 
thanking God, praying, offering up sacrifice ; and 
especially doing homage, and devoting themselves unto 
the Holy One of Israel, and vowing unto Him to follow 
Him fully. Brethren, ye understand this. A like 
thing is this day done among us. But, behold, I come 
nearer to you, and I first unfurl a banner in your midst. 
I observe what ye are thinking. Ye think it is the 
eagle -banner, the dark-coloured victorious standard 
of our Fatherland, and I see you in the act of rallying 
in bands around it with enthusiastic joyfulness. Now, 
perhaps also that, beloved ! But, meanwhile, the ban- 
ner which I at this moment unfurl before you is a 


ELBERFELD. 


187 


different one. It is the sign in which all salvation 
rests ; the sign in which the welfare of States in 
general, as well as the happiness of each one of you in 
particular, finds a sure basis. Ye see it now : it is the 
banner of the Cross ! Around it do ye rally, and wor- 
ship with adoring homage Him who hung thereon, 
even Christ Jesus ! .Say not, “We will worship God.” 
All worshippers who come to God without Christ are 
rejected! Say not, “We will honour Christ.” Ye 
ought to worship Him, for He is King ! Think not in 
your hearts, we will do Him homage according to the 
measure of our faith. No, all honour must be rendered 
to Him. The Father requires it. Answer not, “We 
seek to imitate in our lives His example.” That is 
nothing. The grace of the Eternal is as His blessing, 
a crown wdnch is not bestowed as a reward of work 
separated from faith, the living faith in the name of 
Jesus. Oh, consider it, that the love of God is a love in 
Christ Jesus ; and only in the measure in which they 
honour the name of His Son will men be truly blessed 
of God. Let me further say to you, that God deals 
with sinners not otherwise than through Christ ; and in 
so far only as in faith we place Him in the midst, 
between ourselves and the Almighty, will we succeed 
in opening over our heads His fountains of blessing, 
and remove from our borders His judgments. There- 
fore, whoever loves his people, his country, and his own 
soul, let him rally to my banner; let him in true alle- 
giance stretch out toward it his right hand, vowing to 
the Lord, and from the very depths of his soul let him 
join in the jubilee chorus of Israel: “ Praise be to Jesus 
Christ ! All honour to the Lamb ! ” 

Along with the banner of the Cross, I erect in the 
midst of you an altar holy to the Lord — and, lo, 


188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


scarcely does it rise up into view, when my people 
gather in crowds around it ! They think they are look- 
ing on the altar of the Fatherland. And I see how 
they offer a solemn vow, and express an ardent wish 
for the welfare of the highly loved land of their fathers. 
And see how they cast down a sword upon the altar. 
They wish it to be “ one man and one wall,” if there 
should be strife again. And how they bring all their 
strength, consecrating it to the achievement of the lofty 
aims of the fathers, and then how they break out with 
the good, old, joyful watchword, “ All for one, and one 
for all !” Yes, on our altar, which we now erect, there 
is even room for all that; — but room also for a very dif- 
ferent kind of offering. There is room on it also for 
tears of repentance, because of our ingratitude ; room 
for the sacrifice of a broken heart and a grieved mind ; 
room for a confession, like that of the centurion, “ Lord, 
I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my 
roof;” room for the sighs of publicans and sinners, and 
for the effusions of souls hungering for grace and crying 
for mercy. Oh that my people would more and more, 
with such gifts and sacrifices, cover the altar of the 
Lord ; so would there soon descend upon it a fire from 
heaven, as upon the altar in the temple of Israel, giving 
witness that they had come up before God as a sacri- 
fice well-pleasing in His sight, and they would return 
in showers of blessing again upon the earth. 

And, finally, I lay before you, upon the steps of that 
altar, a book for your signature. I imagine your 
thoughts. Ye think it is the book bearing the signa- 
tures of a people loyal to their king — the book wherein 
there is recorded the names and pledges of those who 
are protesting against the spirit of the times, which 
has broken away from God and His Word, and 


ELBEKFELD. 


189 


against those evil principles that have emanated from 
the abyss. No, my brethren, in that book stand in- 
scribed, long ago, all your names. But this book I 
mean is the book of the suppliant — the book in which 
they record their names who wish to be bound together 
with us in a covenant to bring before God continually, 
every day, the interests of our land and our people, and 
earnestly to plead before Him His own promises ; to 
plead for a general outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and, 
instead of the sparks that have hitherto shone, to draw 
down a very flame of new life upon our land. And, oh, 
what do I see ? How also to this book they gather 
in crowds, with the pen wherewith to inscribe their 
names in their hands ! Now I take this document in 
both of my hands, and lift it joyfully up, and prophesy 
to my people, that to-day or to-morrow the new Ben- 
jamin and Judah of God will be revealed in full splen- 
dour. Here is the document which warrants it ; here 
the letter, here the seal! 

Now to conclude. The termination of that festival 
in Israel was joyful ; its consequences were altogether 
blessed. Our festival to-day will also bear its blossom. 
How read we ? “ And Solomon sent the people 

away : and they blessed the king, and went unto their 
tents joyful and glad of heart, for all the goodness that 
the Lord had done for David His servant, and for 
Israel His people/' They had anew been constrained 
to say, “We are a people with whom the Lord is 
present;" and before the powerful impression which the 
consideration of all the goodness and mercy with which 
God had crowned Israel had produced within them, all 
the clouds of debasing covetousness and worldliness, 
which had here and there gathered around the heart, 
were all at once completely swept away. Their inner 


190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

life was all radiant with the clear shining as of spring. 
Their hearts overflowod with thankfulness, and they 
bowed down in humble adoration. Their souls were 
like bright festal chambers, echoing with the sweet 
tones of praise ; and there was perhaps no one among 
the whole people who did not feel himself constrained 
by new love, and strengthened with new might, while 
giving himself up to the duties of domestic and public 
life. 

And the Jews returned from the festival not only 
“joyful,” but of “good courage.” From that which 
Jehovah had already done for Israel, there was legiti- 
mately drawn the conclusion, that, in the future, He 
would do yet more for His people. They remembered 
that He was called the Amen, the Faithful and True ; 
and they believed that, in the thousand bright illustra- 
tions of the kindness He had hitherto displayed, they 
saw the promise revealed : “ Israel, I am thy God ! 
Fear not, My grace is a Fountain which is never 
exhausted ! ” And if they wanted yet further supports 
for their hope of the future, these were richly supplied 
them by the festival itself from which they now re- 
turned home. There were so many things in those 
blessed days they had just spent, which warranted 
them to cherish the happiest expectations for the 
future. Their universal jubilee at the entrance of God 
into the temple which had been prepared; Solomon's 
going before them with the banner of Zion and with the 
censer of prayer ; the enthusiasm of the affection shown 
by the whole people for their paternal ruler ; the 
earnest, heartfelt prayer for the king, his house, his 
government, and his country, rising up from the lips 
of the thousands of Israel — all this, and many other 
such-like things, oh, how they lighted up the future, 


ELBERFELD. 


191 


as if Israel’s firmament had been sown over with the 
golden stars of hope ! 

“ They went unto their tents glad of heart, and 
they blessed the king.” Brethren, here I end, and in 
silence retire into the background. Lo, I see one 
standing now in the midst of you, one incomparably 
more glorious, a herald from the presence-chamber of 
Jehovah, a seer with his sacred harp consecrated to 
God. There he is, and he salutes my people on the 
right hand and on the left. Why beams his counte- 
nance with joy ? The man, it is easily seen in him, 
brings good tidings. Only with significant look reveal- 
ing to us his secret, he passes quickly through our 
midst, he hastens to the throne of the king, and joy- 
fully opens his mouth to deliver his message. Come, 
let us stand with reverence at a distance, and listen in 
silence to his word. “ Thus,” begins the seer, “ thus 
saith the Lord to thee, His anointed, I hold thee by 
thy right hand, that thou mayest subdue nations be- 
fore thee, and loose the loins of kings, and to open 
before thee the two-leaved gates ; and the gates shall 
not be shut before thee ; I will go before thee, and 
make the crooked places straight : I will break in 
pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of 
iron : and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, 
and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest 
know that I the Lord, which call thee by thy name, 
am the God of Israel. Lo, thou wilt be my shepherd, 
and shalt perform all my pleasure ; even saying to 
Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the temple, 
Thy foundation shall be laid. And I the Lord will 
make thy land as a garden of Eden, and thy fields as 
a garden of the Lord. And I will give great peace to 
thy land, that nothing but delight and joy may be 


192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


found therein, and thanks and songs of praise through- 
out all its borders !” 1 Thus speaks the seer of God in 
the name of Jehovah. “ Yea, Amen, we joyfully ex- 
claim. * So let it be ! ” Raise thyself aloft, Prussian 
Eagle, on the wings of faith, and choose for thyself 
thine element in the marvellous light of that Sun, 
under whose wings there is health and salvation. Build 
thine eyrie in the rock Christ, and thou shalt never be 
overcome, and the gleam of thy crown will make the 
nations tremble! 

“ And they blessed the king.” Now, dear brethren, 
I have long enough held in your hearts with rein and 
bridle. Now let every restraint give way, and allow 
the freest scope to the animation and joy of your hearts ; 
gather joyfully around the throne of the noblest father 
of his country ; give voice to the feelings which burn 
within you ; salute him with the cry, “ Long live the 
king ! ” and no longer hesitate with childlike joy, as 
every one's heart may prompt him to speak out, to pour 
forth your good wishes into his bosom ! May the Lord 
our God be with him, and crown him with grace as 
with a shield ! May the king rejoice in Jehovah's 
strength, and be very joyful in His salvation ! May the 
Lord grant him the desire of his heart, and deny him 
nothing which his lips have craved ! May the Lord 
prosper all his designs ! May He make him a blessing 
continually, and make him glad with the joy of His 
countenance ! May he also, through the power of 
God, stand as a beautiful pillar under the temple-roof 
of the true Church ; as a strong tower against which 
the waves from the abyss may dash themselves to 
pieces ! May the great salvation be granted unto him 
from the Lord ; to him, and to his seed after him, for 

1 See Isaiah xliv. 28, xlv. 1, &c. 


ELBERFELD. 


193 


ever ! May blessings descend on the future heir of his 
throne ! May the grace of God in Christ Jesus cover 
him with its healing wings ! May the Lord, before 
whom he, along with us, lies in the dust, fulfil the 
thousand joyful hopes with which a whole people look 
upon him, our ardently beloved Prince ! May the God 
of his father be his helper ! May he be blessed, and 
may the blessing of God be upon him, which may reach 
“to the precious things of the lasting hills!” From 
day to day may the bond divinely formed, which binds 
us and our royal house together in such loving fellow- 
ship, be more and more closely knit together ; and may 
the holy relationship root itself continually the deeper 
in the love of Christ, and in the Word of Life, that it 
may endure through all time, and be perpetuated in 
eternity ! Brethren, what do I hear ? truly our desires 
and prayers for blessing pierce through the heavens. 
A voice from above comes hovering down to us. Ye 
may all hear it. To the assurance and great joy of your 
hearts, ye may hear it echoing — it is the voice of God, 
the Faithful and True — “Amen, so let it be ! ” This 
is the voice from the clouds. Thus let all be glad and 
rejoice ! Brethren, what we desire, may it be granted ! 
Amen, it will ! Yea, hallelujah, amen ! 


A public festival was given by the magistrates of 
Elberfeld on the occasion of the Prince’s visit, at which 
he very graciously condescended to be present. His 
demeanour, in its power to win our affections, was 
befitting the princely nobility and amiable gracefulness 
which he inherited from his father — a gracefulness which, 
in its most familiar condescension, never passed beyond 
the bounds of what was right and fitting. My love 


194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

and veneration for him drew me on, toward the close of 
the festival, to make some observations which happily 
gave expression to the innermost thoughts and feelings 
of the whole company seated around the table, and 
which were applauded with the highest enthusiasm. 
The Crown Prince replied to the acclamation by saying 
to me, “ Krummacher, pray ! ” One of the Prince’s 
retinue, the General von Thile, had caused the toast I 
then gave, so far as he could recall it to remembrance, 
to be afterwards lithographed for his friends ; and I am 
sorry that I cannot here insert it, for the simple reason 
that I no longer possess a copy of it. I remember only 
that I saluted the Crown Prince as the prototype of the 
future German people, not only as risen up again into 
a united nation, but also come into the possession of 
all the virtues of their ancestors — renewed, however, 
and regenerated by the purifying influence of Chris- 
tian truth ; and this I only now remember, because 
thereby the first foundations were laid of that relation 
which I afterwards sustained to him, which led to my 
being called to Berlin, and afterwards to Potsdam. In 
the year 1841, when the Prince, who had by this time 
ascended the throne, came to Elberfeld, he was received 
with the same tumult of joy as before. Alas, that 
at a later period a blightening mildew should have 
fallen upon and poisoned these blossoms of the purest 
patriotism ! Yet in spite of all that, the Wupperthal, 
so far as regards the majority of its inhabitants, re- 
mained true and loyal to the king, and they showed 
this in the most splendid manner on several occasions, 
when dangers seriously threatened the Prussian Father- 
land. 

If I were asked to bring forward, from among the 
different classes belonging to the Beformed Congre- 


ELBERFELD. 


195 


gation of Elberfeld, persons in whom its spiritual and 
ecclesiastical character showed itself in a clear and 
distinct manner, I would select as such from among the 
burghers “ old Diedrich,” and from among the higher 
classes, particularly from among the female portion of 
them, the mother of the well-known family of Heydt. 
The former was regarded as, in a remarkable degree, an 
“ experienced Christian/’ which he really was. From his 
own personal experience he knew all the steps of the 
inner life of faith. He knew also how to speak of an 
awakening out of a state of spiritual death, of conflicts 
with sin under the law, of an entrance upon a state of 
grace, and of the blessedness of the first love under the 
comforting words and gracious assurances that came to 
him from the Lord. He could speak from experience 
also of a spiritual warfare against many foes ; of doubts, 
of wrestlings with ungodly thoughts ; of being deprived 
of the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and of the darken- 
ing of his faith ; but he could speak also of victories 
gained through the Word and Spirit of God, of naked 
faith, and also of a faith full of emotion and of joy, and 
of all other steps and stages of a living Christianity. 
What wonder is it then, that seldom a single day 
passed by in which some soul, seeking for God, did not 
visit this “ Father in Christ,” that he might be aided 
and comforted by his counsel ? And he was indeed an 
excellent counsellor, who always knew how to strike 
the nail on the very head, in the most original and 
often most humorous way. No one left his presence 
without receiving the blessing either of comfort and 
consolation, or of warning and instruction . 1 

1 In the manuscript of the Autobiography, the description of the char- 
acter of the late Frau von der Heydt, which would naturally have been 
here inserted, is unhappily wanting. We refer the reader, as a compensa- 
tion for tliis defect, to the “ Frauenbriefe,” edited by Adolf Zahn, where he 


196 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

In the year 1840 I paid a visit to my parents in 
Bremen, and it was on this occasion that I threw the 
torch of war into the midst of the Church-life of Bre- 
men, by a sermon which I was permitted to preach in 
the Church of St Ansgar, 1 of which my father was at 
that time pastor primarius. I had heard several ser- 
mons there which, by their flat rationalistic character, 
veiled under a light biblical white-wash, so stirred me 
up that I felt a deep, genuine sympathy with the con- 
gregation, from whom the comforting truths of the 
Gospel were so hidden. I ought, however, at the same 
time, to have comforted myself in the thought, that in 
that town, so richly blessed from olden times with 
spiritual blessings, over whose gates the ineffaceable 
inscription, “ Hospitium ecclesiae Domini/’ could yet 
be read, there were not wanting those who gave 
earnest and decided proclamation to the Word of God. 
There yet stood in its pulpits, after Menken, that 
valiant witness for Bible truth, had closed his eyes on 
this world, such preachers as — not to speak of my own 
father, who has since departed to glory — the highly- 
honoured Treviranus, unweariedly active for the ad- 
vancement of the kingdom of God ; the energetic and 
eloquent Mallet ; the deeply earnest Muller, calmly 
giving witness to the mighty power of the truth; 
Mallets colleague, the enthusiastic and highly-edu- 
cated Pauli; von Hanfstengel, who especially, by his 
spirit of gentleness and love, won men’s hearts to the 
Gospel; and many others. But these men were as 
seldom heard by the majority of those who belonged to 
the congregation of St Ansgar, as was my father him- 

will find, very clearly and distinctly presented, a portraiture of that noble 
lady. —Ed. 

1 A monk of Corvey, afterwards Archbishop of Hamburg, missionary to 
the Swedes in the middle of the ninth century. — T r. 


ELBERFELD. 


197 


self. I entertained the hope, and in this I was not 
mistaken, that they would be enticed by curiosity for 
once, to gather together for the purpose of hearing a 
stranger. 

On that occasion I selected as my text the words 
of the apostle : “But though we, or an angel from 
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that 
which we have preached unto you, let him be ac- 
cursed /’ 1 The theme of my discourse I announced as 
“ Paul, not a man in accordance with the opinions of 
our time.” Without being, in the remotest degree, led 
aside into allusions to any persons, I unfolded, with 
the greatest calmness, the diametrical opposition be- 
tween the rationalistic sentiments which prevailed in 
our time, and the ideas of the great apostle. I set 
forth the great earnestness with which the apostle 
warned the preachers against preaching to their con- 
gregations any other Gospel than that which he had 
preached. Naturally, my sermon was regarded as a 
direct polemic against the rationalistic clergy, although 
it was so only in an indirect way. Dr Paniel, in a 
brochure overflowing with bitterness and gall, was the 
first who threw down the gauntlet, because he thought 
my sermon particularly directed against him. A great 
many other pamphlets followed this one, published at 
Bremen and elsewhere, on both sides of the contro- 
versy. Two of these were from my own pen ; the 
latter, and the more extended, under the title, “ Der 
scheinheilige Rationalismus vor dem Bichterstuhl der 
heiligen Schrift .” 2 That the violent hatred with which 
I was assailed from many sides did not fall easily upon 

1 Gal. i. 8, 9. 

2 “ The pretended Rationalism before the Tribunal of the Holy Scrip- 
tures.” 


198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


me may be readily imagined; but it was as little able 
to cause me to repent of my sermon at Bremen, as 
was that expression of the King to some one who was 
standing beside him : “I wished to call Krummacher 
to Berlin, but for the present this cannot be done.” 

The consciousness that I spoke that word, not “ of 
envy and strife,” but with a good intention, and for 
the honour of that Gospel which is dearer to me than 
all other things besides, imparted to me consolation in 
the midst of all this. The congratulations also with 
which I was welcomed on my return to Elberfeld, 
helped me patiently and without injury to bear the 
ignominy with which I was assailed. Meanwhile it 
appeared, the longer the more manifest, that this eccle- 
siastical controversy was so far not without blessed 
fruits to many, inasmuch as by means of it they learned 
accurately to distinguish between biblical Christianity 
and the empty, effete form of doctrine which had 
hitherto been offered to them under all kinds of pious 
representations ; and among the journalistic stones 
which were hurled at my head, there also reached me 
many a “ macte virtute esto ! ” 1 even from many 
hitherto unknown friends, which inwardly quickened 
me. 

I do not advise any of my brethren in office to enter 
too rashly on a declaration of theological warfare ; yet, 
at the same time, let there be no changing of sides, or 
proposals to capitulate, in opposing unbelievers. The 
injunction, “ endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus 
Christ,” is addressed to every herald of the Gospel. 
But persuasion is better than condemnation ; and an 
undermining process, by means of calm, clear arguments, 
is generally more successful than a tempestuous assault. 

1 “ Well done ; be of good courage.” 


ELBEBFELD. 


199 


A war, such as I then carried on, is not brought to a 
conclusion, even for the representative of the just cause, 
without a “ full and overflowing measure ” of many 
kinds of annoyances and sorrows. Even the most 
glorious victory — and it is obvious that I gained such 
a victory, in so far, at least, as I had unanswerably 
proved that the Word of God was on my side — is 
bought at a costly enough price, by many sad hours 
and sleepless nights spent in prayers and sighs. To 
hear ones sermon stigmatized before all the world as a 
“ curse-and-condemnation sermon,” and one’s-self de- 
clared to be “ a raving fanatic,” is certainly not agreeable. 
But that can be borne, if the enmity one is exposed to 
does not pour itself, like a fructifying dew, over the 
weeds of sin, bitterness, and hatred and envy, and 
other dark and hateful passions, which remain concealed 
in our own nature, so as to make them grow up more 
luxuriantly within us. One who aims the lance of truth 
against sinners is immediately, and indeed with justice, 
ranked among sinners themselves. But even this may 
be a gain to him. 


Another excursion, undertaken from Barmen to the 
old Hanse town , 1 at that time divided into two 
ecclesiastical camps, had a happier and more harmoni- 
ous issue than that last named. It brought me into 
the dear land of Wtirtemberg, where I enjoyed the 

1 Bremen. In the middle ages, certain commercial towns in the north of 
Europe entered into a league or Hama (a corporation) for promoting their 
common interests. The number of these Hanse towns varied at different 
periods. At one time there were as many as eighty-five joined together in 
this confederacy. These towns enjoyed great privileges, and rose to high 
political importance. The Hanse League was dissolved in 1630, when the 
last general diet was held at Lubeck. Since that time the title of Hanse 
towns has been confined to Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg. — Tr. 


200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


opportunity of fellowship with men whom I number 
among my dearest and most valued friends I have met 
on my journey of life. The Suabian people , 1 among 
whom, at a later period, I frequently sojourned, gained 
altogether a larger .place in my heart than before, and 
my affection for them has not to this hour decreased. 
If depth of feeling and heartiness of character, united 
with a clear, vigorous intellect, and with a fresh, lively 
imagination, under the most amiable and unassuming 
simplicity of character, are the essential characteristics 
of the German people, then among all who belong to 
the German family the Suabians are the most German. 
If I were asked to point out persons in whom these 
features of character appeared to me to be displayed 
with special clearness, I would name, among crowned 
heads, the first Duke of Wiirtemberg, “ Eberhard im 
Bart,” who, in that contention of princes as to who 
among them was most to be envied, declared that it 
was he, because he could pass the night safely in the 
thickest forest, under the shelter of any one of his 
subjects ; among philosophers, Schelling, who formed 
an era in the kingdom of ideas ; among the poets of 
ancient times, the Minnesingers , 2 and ddieir exact 
counterpart in modern times, Ludwig Uhland ; among 
artists, Dannecker , 3 the unassuming sculptor of the 

1 Swabia or Suabia is one of tbe original ten circles into which Germany 
was divided. It was so called from the Suevi, a German tribe which 
settled there. It was a dukedom from the fifth to the thirteenth century, 
when, the reigning family becoming extinct, it was divided among neigh- 
bouring princes. The chief portion of Swabia now forms the kingdom of 
Wiirtemberg and the grand-duchy of Baden. — T r. 

2 The name given to the German minstrels, “ the nightingales of the 
Middle Ages,” who, near the close of the first half of the twelfth century, 
began to sing of earthly love and sorrow. They transferred to the whole 
female sex the ordinary feeling with which men then regarded the “ Holy 
Virgin Tr. 

3 Johann Heinrich Dannecker, born at Stuttgart 1758, died 1841. As a 


ELBERFELD. 


201 


most splendid of all the statues of Christ ; and, finally, 
among theologians, the profound Albert Bengel, 1 who 
has made the field of theology, and particularly that 
of the interpretation of the Scriptures, fruitful for 
centuries with the fulness of his great and precious 
thoughts. 

In Stuttgart I came into the midst of the ex- 
citements of a very active Christian life. The old 
pietist, Father Dann — like a veteran hero on the bul- 
warks, covered with the scars and the dust of battle — 
still occupied his pulpit. His helpers, the venerable 
merchants and citizens Hering, Josenhans, and others, 
acted under him, not only as zealous associates in the 
work of Missions, and of tract and Bible circulation, but 
also as earnest and circumspect conductors of religious 
meetings. They permitted me also to address their 
meetings, which were very numerously attended. 
“ Love for love ” might have been appropriately written 
over the door of the chamber in which these Christian 
friends met together for prayer, in confidential mutual 
affection. The 133d psalm was seen here in its full 
realization. With what “ unity ” did the brethren 
dwell together ! “ How good and how pleasant ” was 

their assembly ! It was like “ the precious ointment 
upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even 

sculptor he occupied one of the foremost places among German artists. 
“ Sculpture has three great masters to point to, who impressed profound 
Christian views upon brass and marble. The Italian Canova (died 1822) 
was the renewer of this art. The German JDannecIcer, inspired by him, 
excelled his master. His Christ represents the Divine Mediator in a sublime 
marble statue, as he beheld Him in vision. But greater than both of these 
is the Dane, Thorwaldsen.” — T r. 

1 Prelate at Stuttgart, died 1752, author of “Gnomon Novi Testamenti,” 
a commentary on the New Testament, “distinguished by pregnancy of 
expression and depth of comprehension.” An English translation of the 
“ Gnomon ” has recently been issued by the publishers of this work, in 
5 vols. 8vo. — Tr. 

N 


202 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

Aaron’s beard : that went down to the skirts of his 
garment ; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that 
descended upon the mountains of Zion.” 

The first excursion I made from Stuttgart 1 was to 
Kircheim unter Teck, to Albert Knapp, the intimate 
friend of my brother Emil, and his fellow-student at 
the University of Tubingen, with whom, till then, I 
was acquainted only through correspondence. If I 
ever met a young man, all bright and radiant with the 
most hopeful promise for the future of his career in 
life, it was this noble son of the Suabian land, in the 
cheerful, budding, spring-time of his life, as a pastor 
and a poet, as well as in the midst of a newly-formed 
household, The very image of ruddy health, tall of 
stature, firmly built — his brow, his mouth, his eyes, all 
reflecting the lively energy of his spirit and unfeigned 
happiness — he won the affection of all those with whom 
he became acquainted. Whenever he opened his lips 
in conversation, one heard from him the richest efflor- 
escence of genuine old Suabianism. From morning to 
evening this amiable man sparkled, like a fountain from 
a rock, with striking thoughts — thoughts gleaming like 
images of gold, and pervaded with wit and humour. I 
do not forget the pleasant walk which we had together 
to Dreien, behind the lofty ruins of the Castle of Neuf- 
fen. An unfailing flow of surprising ideas, animating 
thoughts, and harmless, lively incidents, shortened for 
us the hours into minutes. Having arrived at a lonely 
house on our way, he bade me accompany him into it 
to pay a visit to a “ dear invalid,” who had long lain 
on her bed of pain, without any hope of recovery. We 
stepped gently within, and after her pastor had intro- 
duced me to her, though apparently approaching her 

1 In September 1832. 


ELBERFELD. 


203 


latter end, she heartily welcomed me in a pleasant man- 
ner, spoke cheerfully to me, and after I had reminded 
her of several of the promises of the Gospel, she asked 
me to pray with her. The request she made met my 
own feelings; my heart overflowed; from moment to 
moment the pale countenance of the sick woman 
seemed brightened with sunny gladness ; and after 
the “Amen,” she reached out to me her thin, trembling 
hand, and whispered, with the expression of a spirit 
already raised up to the enjoyment of heaven, that she 
would leave this world in peace, for she rejoiced in God 
her Saviour. Deeply moved by what we saw, we con- 
tinued our journey up the mountain. But when we 
had arrived at the ancient fortress, and had lain down 
on the soft, mossy carpet that encompassed the ruins, 
to refresh ourselves with the bread and wine we had 
brought with us, friend Knapp suddenly disappeared, 
but soon afterwards returned, and recited to us from 
his note-book a poem which he had composed on 
the spot, pervaded by a spirit of the loftiest poetic 
enthusiasm. 

That in Albert Knapp 1 there was a true poetic 
inborn genius, no one will seriously deny ; and yet he 
is not generally mentioned in our recent histories of 
literature as ranked among the “ Suabian poets ;” 
although, without doubt, he would have been named 
among them, and in the very foremost rank, had he 
consecrated his harp to the spirit of the world, instead 
of seeking all his inspiration from the Spirit of God. 
But worldly fame, to which the way and the door 
stood wide open for him, he gladly cast at his feet ; 
and recognised it as his calling, as it indeed was 
the impulse of his heart, to sing the praises of the 
1 Died 18th June 1864. 


204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

heavenly Prince of Peace, through whom he knew he 
was redeemed, and ordained “ to the inheritance of the 
saints in light." Instead of worldly fame, there was 
destined for him, so long as a Church of Christ shall 
remain on earth, the glorious reward of God, that his 
“ Eines wiinsch’ ich mir vor allem Andern," “ An dein 
Bluten und Erbleichen," “Abend ist es, Herr, die 
Stunde," and many other of his hymns, shall never 
cease to be sung in it. We bless him, in the name of 
many thousands to whom the melodies of his harp, 
breathing peace and joy, have lightened their steps on 
the way to the city of God; and we hope that the 
people of Stuttgart may long refresh themselves at 
the “ streams of living water," which, according to the 
word of the Lord , 1 yet flow for them to this hour, 
from the life and labours of their highly-gifted pastor. 

From Kirchheim, which was then the residence of 
the Duchess of Wtirtemberg, the illustrious mother of 
the then King of Wtirtemberg, one of the noblest and 
most pious of women whose brow a princely diadem 
ever adorned, and also Knapp’s noble and friendly 
patroness, I went to Calw 2 to visit Christian Barth, 
the noble hermit, but who from his lonely cell em- 
braced the whole world with the arms of his missionary 
love> and who continuously exchanged despatches con- 
cerning the kingdom of God with all the nations of 
the earth, as perhaps no ruler, diplomatist, or ambas- 
sador ever did. Who can number the tracts, and the 
precious books for religious edification, which, like a 
very flock of spiritual doves bearing messages of peace, 
with his letters and intercessions, from year to year 
went forth in all directions from his quiet dwelling ? 

1 John vii. 38. 

2 A village in Wtirtemberg, in the circle of the Black Forest. 


ELBERFELD. 


205 


I spent happy days also under the roof of this 
beloved friend, surrounded by numberless trophies of 
the victories which had been gained in the battles of 
the Lord throughout the heathen world — bows and 
clubs, idol images that had been cast down, and 
amulets. Among these there flitted about also several 
turtles and parrots, which saluted us with their 
screams.- In Barth I found a normal genuine Suabian, 
thoroughly original, pure of heart, full of earnest 
wit, and of lively earnestness. A few months ago, 
he shook the dust of the pilgrim from off his feet, 
and now, from his throne in the kingdom above, he 
surveys with unclouded eye the future, as it shall 
unfold itself among the nations on the earth here 
below. 

I was present at the anniversary festival of the 
Free Church colony of Kornthal , 1 which is not far 
from Stuttgart. Its founder and patriarch, the magna- 
nimous, resolute Hoffmann, presided over it in the 
full strength of his manhood. From all corners of the 
land hundreds of guests streamed in to the festival, 
who — when I arrived along with my Stuttgart friends 
— partook of their breakfast in the open air, partly 
gathered around long tables, and partly stretched out 
on the grass. After this, the bells invited them into 

1 “ There existed in Protestant Whrtemberg an activity of the religious 
spirit in the national life as nowhere else. Pietism, Chiliasm, Separa- 
tism, the Conventicle system, &c., assumed powerful forms ; solid scientific 
knowledge, philosophical culture, and lately also philosophical and criti- 
cally destructive tendencies, forced themselves upon the clergy of this 
county from Tubingen. The dissatisfaction with many of the innovations 
in the liturgy, hymn-book, &c., drove many from the Established Church. 
After the adoption of forcible measures had proven fruitless, the Govern- 
ment allowed (1818) those dissatisfied to establish the congregation of 
Kornthal, with a peculiar ecclesiastical and civil constitution, after 
apostolic example” {Kurtz). — Tr. 


206 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

the large, well-lighted church, the hymn sounded 
forth, and the chief of the colony delivered an excellent 
address with impressive animation. The inspector and 
the pastor of the place spoke in like manner. On the 
afternoon it came to my turn to address the multi- 
tude. My text was the history of the woman taken in 
adultery ; l my theme, “ Free grace in Christ.” I ex- 
tolled highly the free grace of God, not knowing that 
a great part of my audience consisted of Michselians , 2 
who, in opposition to the Pregizerians , 3 whose doctrine 
of grace bordered closely on Antinomianism, strongly 
accentuated the doctrine of the personal sanctification 
of believers, which brought them under the condemna- 
tion of affirming the doctrine of salvation by works. 
Thus I had the misfortune of unconsciously throwing 
the apple of discord among the people assembled there. 
My situation resembled somewhat that of the apostle 
at Jerusalem, who, when he spoke of the resurrection 
from the dead, became the innocent occasion of a vio- 
lent “ uproar” among the Pharisees and the Sadducees, 
so that “ the multitude was divided.” The theme for 
social conversation during the remaining part of that 
festival day was now given ; yet reconciliation and ex- 
planations were found, and in the evening we separated 
from one another in peace, and with our hearts anew 
animated by brotherly love. 

But the most precious result of my Wiirtemberg 

1 John viii. 1-11. 

2 Founded by Michael Hahn (died 1819), a butcher in Wurtemberg. 
This system is a product of Spener’s Pietism, and the Theosophy of 
Oetinger, the “ Magus of the South.” It is especially distinguished as dis- 
regarding the doctrine of justification in favour of sanctification, and as 
giving prominence to the doctrines of Christ in us, to the neglect of the 
doctrine of Christ for us. — Tr. 

3 Founded by a preacher called Pregizer, of Haiterbach, a town in the 
circle of the Black Forest. — Tr. 


ELBERFELD. 


207 


journey was the experience I gained at the deathbed 
of Ludwig Hofacker, who was above many richly 
blessed in his evangelistic labours. He yet to this 
day preaches to many thousands, and will long con- 
tinue so to preach, in his widely-spread published testi- 
monies to the truth. This dear friend, as he lay there 
so calmly and with such patience, saluted me with 
his countenance, once beautiful and ruddy, but now 
white as a lily, and spoke to me with Simeon -like 
peace of his near approaching departure to his heavenly 
home. At the same time he addressed to me the ani- 
mating exhortation : “ Let the trumpet of Zion never 
be withdrawn from thy mouth, so long as there is a 
breath within thee ! ” Soon after this he departed to 
his reward above, like gold purified in the furnace. 
The Suabian land lost in him its most powerful 
preacher. And so early ! He was only thirty years 
of age ; but, as the prophet testifieth, “ This also 
cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is won- 
derful in counsel, and excellent in working .” 1 

In Stuttgart I also met with the famous sculptor 
Dannecker, by whose personal appearance I was scarcely 
less animated than I was by the marble statues of his 
rich atelier , breathing spirit and life. The man re- 
minded me, by his simplicity and by his frank honesty 
of manners, of his German predecessors of art in the 
Middle Ages. As I conceive of the artist, Peter 
Vischer 2 of Nurnberg, the sculptor of the statues of 
the apostles in the Church of St Sebaldus, the simple, 

1 Is. xxviii. 29. 

2 A celebrated old German sculptor, bom about the middle of the fifteenth 
century. His masterpiece is the tomb of St Sebald, in the church of that 
saint at Nurnberg. Among other figures sculptured on it are twelve 
small statues of the apostles. In one part he has also introduced his own 
portrait in his working dress. — T r. 


208 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

unassuming man, with leathern apron and waistcoat, 
and with hammer and mallet in his hands, so Dan- 
necker stood before me, and gave expression, in the 
fullest^md most inartistic idiom of his Fatherland, to 
the most brilliant flashes of his good-natured Suabian 
wit. Dannecker was in his art a pious man, for how 
otherwise could he have made his statue of Christ ? 
It would have seemed very strange to him if what one, 
who had seen his colossal bust of Schiller, wrote not 
long ago, had come to his sight — 4 4 1 was altogether 
overcome with devotion before this god ! ” (namely, 
Schiller). 44 Thou fool/’ would Dannecker have replied; 
44 depart to the asylum for the insane, which is thy 
proper dwelling ! ” 

On my journey homeward I enjoyed a happy day in 
the hospitable refuge of Idyllic poets, artists, and all 
the world, under the mountain fortress of 44 Weiber- 
treu,” at Weinsberg, in the hospitable vine-covered 
house of the amiable Justinus Kerner, the poet, physi- 
cian, and ghost-seeing enthusiast. At that time he 
stood on the summit of his theurgic eccentricities, whose 
mystic smoke-clouds were continually agitated by the 
lightning flashes of an inexhaustible humour. His ex- 
citing and horrifying tales of the wonderful things he 
experienced as a somnambulist were continually accom- 
panied by anecdotes, which were extremely comical in 
then* character. Thus a short time before, a celebrated 
theologian had been permitted to accompany him to 
the sick-bed of the prophetess von Prevorst, and after 
he had asked permission from Kerner, he tried exorcism 
upon her in his own way. Approaching her couch in 
a solemn manner, he began his exorcising with this 
strange formula : 44 In the name of Reason, to which is 
given power over all spectres ; in the name of Science, 


ELBERFELD. 


209 


before whose light all forms of deception vanish away ; 
in the name of Christianity, which has purified the air 
of all wicked spirits, I command thee, 0 demon, who 
hast no existence, to come out of this sick woman ! ” 
She suddenly interrupted the solemn exercise, and 
assailed the learned exorciser, in the strong Suabian 
dialect, with a very torrent of abuse, and among other 
things, with the delicate exclamation : “ Thou human 
ass, thinkest thou that I am afraid of thy vile chatter- 
ing ? Away ! begone ! lest there come upon thee some- 
thing which thou wilt not soon forget ! ” How crest- 
fallen the noble exorcist hastened thence, and how the 
event had filled many with laughter, which, on this 
occasion, repeated itself in us when we heard the in- 
cident, was related to us by Kerner in the most drastic 
way. 

In dear Justinus, faith, unbelief, and superstition 
penetrated each other, in a constant fermentation, in a 
most wonderful manner. The Holy Scriptures he 
prized as a vade-mecum on which his all was placed ; 
and yet its authority was null and void as often as the 
revelations of his prophetess came into opposition to it. 
Kerner the fantast, however, did not hide from me 
Kerner the poet, whose thoughtful and emotional 
genius expressed itself, during my stay there, in bril- 
liant flashes, particularly when sitting in his vine- 
covered arbour, and amid his wine cups, which were 
daily heard ringing there. In his lyrical poems the 
innermost and the noblest side of his nature presents 
itself to us in the most beautiful development. Among 
the Suabian poets he will always be mentioned side by 
side with his bosom friends Uhland and Gustavus 
Schwab. 

As a man of an altogether different nature, and as 


210 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

one side of it related intellectually to the Weinsberger 
Kerner, was the poet Hebei, the immortal editor of the 
“ Rhine House-Friend,” and also of the incomparable 
collection of “ German Poetry,” with whom I became 
acquainted when in Carlsruhe. At the same time, I 
became acquainted with him also as Hebei the prelate 
and the theologian, and was not a little astonished at 
the difference which I had occasion to discover between 
the two aspects in which he presented himself. Who 
is there that has watched, so narrowly as Hebei the 
poet has done, even the gentlest sounds of the intel- 
lectual and spiritual life of a people yet living in 
comparative innocence ; and who is there that has 
understood how to touch the tenderest strings, even 
those that vibrate to religious truth, in our inmost 
heart, by the magic charm of poetic description, as he 
has ? But . what of Hebei the theologian ? To me, in 
this aspect of his character, he manifested himself as 
the most jejune rationalist — as a man of kindred spirit 
with Paulus of Heidelberg. It appeared to me as a 
psychological mystery, that, in the same person, heart 
and head should lie so far separated from each other ! 
As I discovered, however, at “ the latter end,” a com- 
promise was formed by which the former was not 
placed at a disadvantage. 

I ventured to visit old Paulus 1 also, when on my re- 
turn journey I touched at Heidelberg. The good- 
natured Suabian, in whom I found the same contra- 
diction between the heart and head which I had found 
in Hebei, received me with true fatherly heartiness, 
although he was sitting at work surrounded by his 
huge folios. He at once engaged in conversation with 

1 Eberh. Gotti. Paulus died August 1851, at the age of 90 years. He 
was one of the leading champions of the Vulgar Rationalism. — T r. 


ELBERFELD. 


211 


me on theological questions. When in the course of 
my observations I expressed the idea, that to him 
Christ seemed to be nothing more than a mere man, 
he sprang suddenly from his seat, and replied with 
great passion, and with glowing cheeks : “ That is an 
unjust statement which people are not weary of repeat- 
ing against me ! Believe me, that I never look up to 
the Holy One on the cross, without sinking in deep 
devotion before Him. No, He is not a mere man as 
other men. He was an extraordinary phenomenon, 
altogether peculiar in His character, elevated high 
above the whole human race, to be admired, yea, to be 
adored/' And much more to a similar intent he spake, 
with true animation, regarding the person of the Lord. 
Highly delighted at hearing such an altogether unex- 
pected effusion from his mouth, I left him, wishing 
him the peace of old Simeon, which he took in a friendly 
way, indeed, replying to me, “I heartily thank you." 
Perhaps in my simplicity I gave too favourable an 
interpretation to his confession ; yet I read, also, in one 
of his later writings the words, “ Christ is a miracle, a 
meteoric stone which has fallen down between our two 
ages of the world." 


We now return to the Wupperthal. One is accus- 
tomed to think of the Church of this valley as present- 
ing a sort of muster-roll of all possible sects. But 
though something of a Corinthian character is found 
amongst them, and such a saying is heard as “ I am of 
Paul, or Cephas, or Apollos, or Christ," yet there is no 
foundation for this opinion. If ever congregations felt 
themselves bound to their Church by their glorious 
traditions, then it is these. Perhaps, in consequence 


212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

of the extensive acquaintance with the Word of God 
there prevalent, a variety of views does exist on this 
or that point of Christian doctrine, which again leads 
to this result, that under the general banner of the 
kingdom — which, as far as the essentials of the Chris- 
tian faith are concerned, unites all in one — there are 
gathered together smaller groups of persons sympathiz- 
ing with one another under diverse party banners. 
But this “ itio in partes ” endures only until the signal 
sounds, summoning all to the defence of the general 
citadel of the ancient Church confession. Then all 
stand forth as one phalanx closely knit together. No 
one among them thinks lightly of separating from the 
congregation. There have, it is true, been no lack of 
attempts to build up sects. Gichtelians , 1 Methodists, 
Darbyites , 2 Baptists, sent their emissaries, hoping to 
find, in the rich spiritual life of the valley, the wished- 
for materials wherewith to build up their little sec- 
tional Churches. But in such expectations they were 
disappointed ; Tihd only the last-named of these denomi- 
nations has lately succeeded in gathering a very small 


1 The followers of John Gichtel (died 1710), an eccentric admirer of the 
great mystic Jacob Bohme. “ The Gichtelians called themselves Angelic 
Brethren (Matt. xxii. 30), and strove, in the spirit of their master, to attain 
to an angelic sinlessness, by tearing loose from all carnal desires, laws, and 
toils, and to a priesthood, after the order of Melchisedec, to appease the 
wrath of God” {Kurtz). — Tr. 

2 The Plymouth Brethren, “ related on the one hand with Irvingism, 
by their expectation of the approaching advent of Christ, and likewise 
regarding themselves as the Latter-day Saints, formed, on the other hand, 
the most decided antithesis to Irvingian hierarchism, by their absolute In- 
dependentism. John Darby, at first advocate, then a clergyman in the 
Anglican Church, established a sectarian apocalyptico-independent society 
at Plymouth; but he soon emigrated to Paris, and from thence to Vaud, 
when Lausanne became the chief seat of the sect.” This sect is deeply 
tinged with Antinomianism. Their religion is a sort of Individualism. 
They are also, for the most part, Anabaptists and Millenarians. — T r. 


ELBERFELD. 


213 


and feeble band around their standard, promising a 
stricter discipline, and a closer fellowship of brethren 
with one another. 

As we already mentioned, there arose for a time 
during the Agenda controversy, under Doctor Kohl- 
briigge 1 (altogether on grounds connected with Church 
order), a small independent congregation, which, how- 
ever, did not merit the name of a sect, since in all doc- 
trines it rested on the foundations of the Reformed 
Church, and recognised the Heidelberg Catechism as its 
symbol. Such is the case also with the community 
which has there recently arisen — only that in so far it 
has more the appearance of a separate schismatical 
church, that it also affords room in its midst for those 
who hold the Baptist view regarding the ordinance of 
baptism. 

A small portion among those who were awakened 
caused considerable trouble during my time by their 
dangerous misconception of the doctrine of free grace, 
and the relations of the “ new man ” to the “ old man,” 
which brought them close to the borders of the most 
decided Antinomianism. Among those who held ex- 

1 “ When, in 1835, the Prussian government made every preparation to 
force the introduction of the Union in the Wupperthal, and threatened the 
resistent Reformed preachers with deposition, there arose an excitement 
among the Reformed scarcely less violent than that among the Lutherans 
in Silesia. The clergy, with the majority of their Church members, 
finally accepted the liturgy of the Union, adding the clause, however, ‘ so 
far as it agreed with the nature of the Reformed ritual.’ But a portion of 
the congregations, and of them many of their most excellent members, se- 
parated, and persistently rejected all overtures of re-union. The royal Act 
of Tolerance, of 1847, gave them finally the privilege of organizing an in- 
dependent congregation at Elberfeld, which called Dr Kohlbrugge, who 
was formerly preacher of the restored Lutheran Church at Amsterdam, to 
be their pastor. This congregation, under the name of the “ Dutch Re- 
formed Church,” is the only anti-unionistic, rigidly Reformed congrega- 
tion in Germany” {Kurtz). — Tr. 


214 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

treme views, they taught that sin could henceforth do 
so little injury to a pardoned sinner, that it rather 
tended to the glory of the Physician and of the blood 
of Christ; and that the old man (which is sinful) 
assails so little the new man in a regenerated Chris- 
tian, that he can give it free scope, and leave it to its 
lusts without any danger thereby arising to the new 
man. Fortunately, with the greatest number of the 
people, this ever remained only a theory ; yet it is to 
be feared that, in the heat of controversy with their 
opponents, and in defiance to them, some were led 
gradually to put the seal of practice to their heresy. 
Some, indeed, began already, for the sake of a demon- 
stration against the “ proud saints ” (as they called 
their opponents), openly to visit the taverns, and most 
of them avoided coming to hear our sermons, because 
they did not wish to hear it preached that a new man, 
who holds himself as passive against the old, instead of 
crucifying it, is only a phantom. That heresy was, how- 
ever, gradually overcome, and it has long since wholly 
disappeared. They knew nothing of a justification 
which excluded personal holiness. That word of the 
Apostle Jude , 1 against those “ who turn the grace of 
God into lasciviousness,” victoriously extended its in- 
fluence among them. 

If any accusation is to be brought against believers 
in the Wupperthal in general, one might mention first, 
a certain over-estimation of their individual outward 
forms of life as the only true ones in which Christian life 
can manifest itself ; and then, also, a mistaking of the 
steps of the transition from a state of unbelief to one of 
faith, and, in consequence of that, a too hasty proceed- 
ing in conferring the titles, “ Christian ” and “ unchris- 

1 Jude 4. 


ELBERFELD. 


215 


tian,” on others ; and, farther, a too distinctive refusal 
of every exegetical interpretation of Scripture which 
deviates in any way from that which has been handed 
down to them from their fathers, and has now become 
naturalized among them ; and, finally, too depreciatory 
an estimate of the value of theological science. On 
the part of many also, perhaps, the reality of their con- 
version was determined on too narrow grounds. In so 
far as a person came not up to the standard of a recog- 
nised model, he was at least viewed with mistrust. 
It not seldom happened, also, that tender attachment 
to their pastors was, on the part of many of them, con- 
founded with love to the Lord Himself, and much of 
the “ love of Christ,” with which it was supposed they 
burned, when closely examined, dissolved itself into a 
mere human party zeal. In other respects, however, I 
know no place in our Fatherland where there existed so 
much sound practical Christianity as in that much 
decried, yet, at the same time, much praised valley. 
It is, as it has well been called, one of the “ streets of 
Jerusalem,” blessed above thousands of others. 


Like Jerusalem of old, this valley was also, from year 
to year, the place of resort of vast numbers of the friends 
of the kingdom of God from far and near, sometimes 
even from the remotest regions of the earth. What a 
list of names do I find recorded on the pages of my 
album of excellent men who were on these occasions 
my guests ! Of the large numbers of Germans whose 
names are here inserted, I mention only the following : — 
Dr Tholuck, of Halle ; Dr Kling, who was then in 
Marburg ; Wilhelm Hoffinan, of Basil ; Ludwig von 
Billow, of Nisky ; Professor Yolkmann, of Leipzig ; the 


216 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMAOHER. 

profound and judicious Heinrich von Schubert, of 
Munich, who taught how to understand the book of 
nature ; the minister von Theile, the highly honoured 
Christian of Berlin ; Bunsen, who added these words 
after his name, “ The Word of the Lord our light and 
rule of conduct ! ” Wilhelm Hofacker, of Wurtemberg, 
worthy of great honour, with his brother Ludwig ; Otto 
Mengelnberg, the painter, who added the motto : “ He 
is the fairest among the sons of men Carl von 
Zezschwitz, of Dresden, with his son, who is now pro- 
fessor in Leipzig ; Baron von Wiesenhiitten, of Frank- 
furt-on-the-Maine ; von Bernstorff of Schleswig-Hol- 
stein ; Professor SchafF, and Pastors Souchon and 
Kuntze, of Berlin. 

Among those from France and Switzerland , were : — 
Professors Gaussen, author of a work on the Inspiration 
(Theopneustia) of the Holy Scriptures, and the highly 
meritorious Colonel Trouchin de l’Avigne, both of 
Geneva ; "Rivier, of Lausanne, and Honnegger, of 
Zurich ; and Yalette and Bost, pastors from Paris. 

Among the numerous friends who came from the 
Baltic provinces of Russia , were : — Pastors Huhn, of 
Beval ; Hunnius, of Narwa ; and Berkholz, of Riga ; 
Professor Dr Keil, of Dorpat, and Christiani, at pre- 
sent also Professor of Theology there ; Prince Carl 
Liven, of Courland ; Pastor Knieriem, and von Wag- 
ner, of Petersburg ; and from Esthonia, the excellent 
families, Zoege von Manteuffel, von Stiernhielm, von 
Glehn, von Sivers, and von Maydell. 

Of friends from England , I name only Reed, of Lon- 
don, who is widely known as the author of “ Martha,” 
and Lord Roden. Of visitors from Sweden , I find the 
names of Provost Arrhe’n, of Helsingborg, and Pastor 
Steenhoff, of Carlshafen. From the Netherlands , Dr 


ELBERFELD. 


217 


Capadose, of the Hague ; the intellectual Nickolaus 
Bleets, of Haarlem ; and the Baron von Boetzelaer, of 
Utrecht. Of the large number of missionaries who 
visited us, I here only mention the names of Leupoldt, 
from Benares ; Isenberg, from Abyssinia ; Terlinden 
and his wife, from the Cape of Good Hope ; and Gutz- 
laff, the “ Apostle of China.” Many of those whose 
names I have mentioned have already passed away 
to their heavenly home. I lay a wreath of loving 
remembrance on their tombs. With them, though 
living in the realms of light, I remain still united 
in spirit, until, as we hope, we shall meet again in 
glory. 


Many Americans also visited Elherfeld. Two of 
these, the venerable Dr HofFeditz, and the active and 
zealous Pastor Schneck of Chambersburg, came for the 
purpose of presenting to me, from the Synod of Penn- 
sylvania, a call to be one of the professors in the theo- 
logical seminary of Mercersburg. Their appearance 
amongst us gave rise to a great commotion in the 
congregation, and in me to a great conflict of contend- 
ing feelings in coming to a decision on the matter. I 
long hesitated what to do, especially as from a high 
quarter the encouragement came to me that I might 
accept the invitation, and do so with the assurance 
that, after a certain number of years, I should again 
be called back to my Fatherland. Meanwhile God the 
Lord decided otherwise, and helped me to see, with 
great clearness of inward conviction, that that was not 
the sphere of labour to which He had called me. I 
therefore declined the invitation, and so a new bond 


o 


218 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

was formed between me and my congregation. The 
beloved deputies accepted my declinature, saying with- 
out anger, though not without sorrow, “ As the Lord 
will,” and prepared for their departure to their distant 
fatherland. Yet, to my great comfort, their journey 
was not wholly fruitless. I recommended to them, in 
my stead, Dr Schaff , 1 at that time a privat-docent at 
the University of Berlin. They visited him, found him 
suitable for their institution, and, after their return, 
proposed him to the Synod. He was appointed as. 
professor at Mercersburg, and continues there to the 
present day, making his influence extensively and 
beneficially felt. He has taken with him to America 
the sound German theology, and has already supplied 
many congregations there with thoroughly educated 
pastors. Whether he will succeed in defending the 
German colonists, as with all zeal he is endeavouring 
to do, against a gradual passing over into Anglicanism, 
time will tell. To me it appears doubtful, after all 
experiments that have been hitherto made ; and this 
was one of the grounds on which I did not see my way 
to the acceptance of the call that had been addressed 
to me. 


1 The translator takes the opportunity of inserting here an extract from 
a letter with which he has been favoured from Dr Schaff with reference to 
the above : — “ I was called to the professorship in Mercersburg, in Pennsyl- 
vania, to which Krummacher was first called ; but he errs when he states that 
I am there still. I moved to New York in 1864, to organize the American 
translation and adaptation of ‘ Lange’s Commentary on the Bible,’ and 
am there still. Nor did I ever intend to prevent Germans from being 
Americanized, but simply to save the good elements in this necessary 
and salutary process of amalgamation of nations, which is going on in 
America, on an Anglo-Saxon foundation — the best for any new nationality 
and country.” 


ELBERFELD. 


219 


That the Church of the Lower Rhine, particularly in 
the district of Berg, is proportionally richer in gifted 
preachers and zealous pastors than that of all the other 
provinces of our Fatherland, admits not of question. 
The constitution of the Church contributes to this re- 
sult. The right of freely electing their own pastors, 
which the congregations enjoy, is a powerful stimulus 
to the candidates to restless efforts after self-improve- 
ment. But, above all, the pastors are encouraged and 
animated by the spiritual life, of which none of the con- 
gregations there are altogether destitute. They feel 
themselves lifted up and carried, as it were, in the arms 
of a praying people ; and the rich, clear echo from the 
congregations, in response to their testimonies for the 
truth, helps them to open their mouths with freedom, 
and gives them boldness of utterance. Their constant 
spiritual intercourse with the members of their congre- 
gations supplies them also with suitable material for their 
sermons, and enables them to speak in a practical and 
pointed manner. A certain hereditary deeply-rooted 
custom among them helps them to maintain their 
pastoral dignity. This surrounds them with the bar- 
riers of a decorum, the least transgression of which 
would destroy their whole influence. Hence it follows 
that no preacher indulges himself in any kind of ex- 
travagance, or takes any part in the amusements of 
the men of the world, or ever appears at a ball or a 
theatre, or even a concert, or is ever seen at a card- 
table, or armed with a hunting-rifle. Alas, how many 
of them are there elsewhere, however, who act other- 
wise, amid general toleration ! In that district, such 
conduct would inevitably bring to nought all respect 
for ministers of religion. 

The sermons preached in the churches of the Lower 


220 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Rhine have been spoken of as being monotonous in their 
character ; and this has not been without just cause, if 
a constant reiteration of certain fundamental articles of 
Christian doctrine, presented in a form consecrated by 
long use, may be so styled. In no sermon is the great 
fact of redemption ever passed by unnoticed. In every 
one the method of salvation by Christ is unfolded. 
Repentance, conversion, faith, regeneration, justification, 
and sanctification — the last-named doctrine, however, 
less frequently — are the prominent watchwords in all 
of them. A great many of the forms of expression 
used by the ministers in treating of the interests of the 
soul, are stereotyped, and the very tone of voice in 
which they are uttered bears about it, for the most 
part, a sort of solemn pulpit pathos. It might be de- 
sirable for them in general to extend somewhat the 
circle of the topics they discuss from the pulpit, and 
enter more frequently into the regions of ethics ; and to 
make their statements freer, and in a more individual 
style, and their mode of speech more conversational, 
yea, sometimes to adopt the form of dialogue. The 
Rhine pastor, however, appears to have adopted as his 
motto the words of the apostle to the Philippians, “To 
preach the same things to you, to me indeed is not 
grievous, and for you it is safe.” And the result, so 
far at least justifying this method, is that one will 
meet with few congregations which are so well-estab- 
lished, and so steadfast in the knowledge and confession 
of the essential doctrines of the Gospel, as are the con- 
gregations in that district. In the Reformed Churches 
this result is greatly owing to the sermons preached on 
the Sabbath afternoons, which are consecrated, the whole 
year through, to the exposition of the fifty-two heads 
of the Heidelberg Catechism. The smaller Lutheran 


ELBERFELD. 


221 


Catechism may be more easily comprehended by chil- 
dren, and more pervaded by feeling ; certainly more 
instructive than the Heidelberg one. Experience 
proves this. Only very rarely, however, in these regions, 
where the smaller catechism of Luther is in use, will one 
meet with that clear, distinct acquaintance with the 
whole system of Christian doctrine, which is so common 
in the Rhenish Churches. It is to be confessed that, 
even among these, the knowledge of the way of sal- 
vation is often confounded with the way itself \ and 
perceptions of the truth with faith ; yet, as a corrective 
of this tendency, the general well-known expression, 
according to which there is a sharp distinction drawn 
between “ Christian in word ” (buchstablichen Chris- 
ten), and the “ awakened,” is in current use among 
them. 

The Christianity exhibited among the congregations 
of the Lower Rhine has been condemned by some as 
partaking of the character of Quietism. I wonder that 
it has not rather been described as the Christianity of 
Industrialism. For where has there been developed a 
greater activity than there, in behalf of all the interests 
of the kingdom of God ? Where has there been dis- 
played such skill in the establishing of societies for their 
furtherance ? Where is there seen so active a zeal for 
missions, for Bible and tract circulation, for the cause of 
young men's associations, and for all kinds of Christian 
work ? And where is there so unwearied a self-sacri- 
ficing labour put forth for the promotion of these objects, 
or for the increase in the number of churches or schools, 
or other agencies for the spiritual welfare of the com- 
munity, as is to be met with there ? Let one only 
look at Elberfeld, for instance, where, amid other labour, 
within a very short time, two magnificent new churches 


999 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


have been erected, an elegant “ Society house” estab- 
lished, and the number of preachers has been almost 
doubled ; and all this has been accomplished, without 
any State aid, by the free-will offerings of the congrega- 
tions, who besides, from their own resources, indepen- 
dently provide all that is necessary for the maintenance 
of the churches and schools, and for the support of 
the poor. And as in Elberfeld, so in the whole of the 
Wupperthal, and more or less in all the congregations 
in the surrounding district. I may mention only the 
congregation in the little town of Langenberg, not far 
from the Wupperthal, where at that time my brother 
Emil, and Lange, who is now professor in Bonn, were 
pastors. What streams of spiritual as well as of 
material blessings have continuously, for a long course 
of years, flowed forth from that little town, which 
almost alone maintains the North American Mission, 
stands at the head of the Inner Mission for the Bhine- 
land, sends out itinerant preachers almost wholly 
at its own expense, and besides contributes richly 
to all Christian enterprises ! There is, therefore, cer- 
tainly no foundation for the complaint against them 
of “ Quietism,” and of a “ dull, dreamy mysticism.” 
Would to God that the spiritual activity mani- 
fested in these parishes penetrated through thousands 
of other parishes which are remarkable only for their 
vis inertia! 

For four years from the time of my receiving the call 
from America, the life of my congregation in Elberfeld 
proceeded on in its calm and prosperous course. The 
Agenda controversy was forgotten. The separation of 
the small congregation under Kohlbriigge no longer 
caused sorrow. The last traces of the liturgies that 
had been forced upon us were banished from the Church. 


ELBERFELD. 


223 


The ancient forms of public worship, almost, it must be 
confessed, puritanical in their character, which had 
been handed down from our fathers as a precious 
legacy, and were regarded as almost sacred, were again 
restored to their wonted place. It might be said of 
the congregation at that time, as was testified of the 
Church at Jerusalem : “ Then had the church rest and 
was edified ; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and 
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied.” 
Yet it was not long till the waves of the Confessional 
controversy began to dash against the gates of the 
Wupperthal. It happened that Feldner, a genuine 
Lutheran pastor from the province of Brandenburg, 
was called to Elberfeld. His colleague Jaspis gradu- 
ally took up a more decided place by his side in advo- 
cating the same views. Even Sander began also, 
though in a more pacific and gentle spirit, to give 
strong utterance to the peculiar doctrinal views of the 
Lutheran Church. Pastor Hermann Ball, who was 
born, as it were, with a Calvinistic helmet on his head, 
manifested the strongest opposition to their teachings. 
The practice of celebrating the Lord’s Supper, partici- 
pated in by both of the congregations in common, which 
had existed almost from the time of the Beformation, 
appeared to be in danger of being set aside. At the 
same time, also, the intimate fraternal relationship 
which had existed between the pastors of the two con- 
gregations was threatened with disruption. Instead of 
the pure proclamation of the Gospel of peace, a lament- 
able unfruitful preaching of polemics began to prevail, 
and murmurs began to be heard, chiefly on the side of 
the Lutherans, of contemplated changes from one side 
to another, and of imminent separations. Praise be to 
God, the storm passed by without accomplishing any 


224 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


material injury. While the storm was raging in 
threatening fury over our heads, I was asked whether 
I would consent to exchange Elberfeld for another 
sphere of labour. I listened to this proposal with a 
lighter heart than I would have done at any other 
time. 


CHAP TEE X. 


BERLIN. 


"DEELIN now became my new home, and the large 
congregation of Trinity Church my field of labour. 
The King himself had expressly appointed me as suc- 
cessor to Marheinecke 1 in that sphere. My colleague 
was a superintendent, who was at the same time 
assistant preacher, afternoon preacher, a consistorial 
counsellor, as well as our superior and our inferior, all 
in one. My introduction to my office here was in a 
manner which appeared to me to be more suitable for 
the first ordination of a candidate, than for one who 
had already been engaged in the labours of the 
pastorate, and therefore, while it was in some degree 
humiliating to me, yet it was, on that account, so 
much the more useful and salutary to me. I entered 
with deep emotion into the bond connecting me with 
my new congregation, but was filled with not a little 
consternation when, after the service had been con- 
cluded, one remarked to me that it was questionable 
whether I had really seen my own congregation before 
me, since it was only through official arrangements 
that the Berliner knew that he belonged to a parish at 
all. At a later period my relation to the congregation 
assumed a more favourable form. Yet, at the same 


1 Died 1846. 


226 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


time, I cannot deny that the beginning of my official 
life in Berlin was associated with many bitter disappoint- 
ments. Thus I knew that a preacher could not be 
expected to be welcomed to his parish in a city where 
was the royal residence, in the same way as on the 
Bhine, with a splendid procession . of carriages and 
horses, and amid the pealing of the bells and the firing 
of guns, and therefore the very simple, plain way in 
which we were received on our arrival did not for a 
moment surprise me. It was also not unknown to me 
that in a city crowded with inhabitants, the most of 
whose houses were filled like very barracks, one might 
count himself very happy if he could find only a place 
where to lay his head. Yet the strong contrast in 
which my official residence in the Tauben Strasse stood 
to the beautiful, spacious, comfortable parsonage-house 
whMi I had just left in Elberfeld, presented itself in so 
striking a manner before me, that I could not with any 
heart take delight in the green blooming garlands with 
which my eldest son, who was then residing as a candi- 
date in Berlin, and two beloved friends, had adorned 
the lintels and door-posts of our house, to welcome us 
on our first entrance into it. 

When for the first time I set out, in accordance 
with our Bhenish custom, to visit my congregation, un- 
expected occurrences presented themselves before me, 
which greatly threatened to damp the joy of my 
entrance on my new situation. The discoveries which 
soon pressed themselves upon me of the great amount of 
poverty, misery, and starvation — found particularly in 
the cellars and back-buildings of the houses — strongly 
contrasting with the splendid descriptions which had 
been given to me of my parish, as one of the most 
wealthy and prosperous in the city, which, no doubt, it 


BERLIN. 


227 


was, were not directly fitted to exert any cheering in- 
fluence upon me. Yet I was carried over the sorrow 
which the impression thus made was fitted to awaken, 
by remembering that word of the Lord, that “the 
poor have the Gospel preached to them.” But that 
which also next very deeply depressed me, was the dis- 
covery that there was an almost total want on the part of 
the people of any interest in the Church, or connection 
with it as a congregation. With what astonishment 
they were wont to stare at the man who visited them, 
introducing himself to them as their “new pastor!” 
As a general rule they were dumb, and I distinctly dis- 
covered in them that they supposed there lay behind 
my visit no other object than the performance of some 
piece of work relating to them. Not a few remarked 
that they had already their “ confessor ” in this or 
that parish, often lying at some distance,, who had 
baptized all their children, and would also confirm 
them. Many announced to me that they would not 
long remain in that part of the city where I met them 
to-day, but would in a short time remove to some other ; 
and of such persons there were so many, that suddenly 
the whole congregation presented to me the sad spec- 
tacle of a people always shifting about from place to 
place. Several also discovered by their whole de- 
meanour, that “ pastor,” and “ church,” and “ church 
congregation,” were to them words with which they 
were altogether unacquainted, as they had long ago 
renounced all connection with such things. I did not 
refrain from continuing visits to these families ; but 
with what sorrowful amazement was I filled at the 
ignorance of everything appertaining to Christianity 
which I there found ! The image of the “ city of in- 
telligence ” always remained in my mind, but it hovered 


228 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACIIER. 


now indistinctly before me, and at last vanished alto- 
gether, the more deeply I penetrated into the true 
state of matters. I had hoped to find in the congrega- 
tion connected with Trinity Church some distinct traces 
at least of the intellectual and spiritual activity of 
Schleiermacher and Marheinecke there. But I found 
none, and convinced myself that it must have been 
only the elite of the higher educated classes scattered 
throughout the city, who had at one time assembled 
in crowds around the pulpits of these theological 
notabilities. 

But although there were many things fitted to fill 
me with disappointment and sorrow in my visits to the 
families of the parish, yet it happened also that here 
and there I discovered Christian families who heartily 
replied to my salutations, giving evidence that they 
were in living sympathy with me in faith, and in the 
disposition of their minds. Such families, however, for 
the most part dated the beginning of their spiritual 
life from the labours of the deceased “ Father Jaenicke,” 
under whom they had been awakened, and whose 
sermons they had comprehended. 

The discoveries I made reached their climax when 
I began to visit one after another of the churches of 
the city, and to compare the number of those who 
attended divine worship with the population of the 
several parishes. I never saw so proportionally small 
a number attend the Sabbath forenoon worship as here; 
and I arrived at the conclusion, that of the population 
of Berlin, approaching half a million, not more, after 
deducting the number of the military attending the 
garrison church, than thirty thousand persons, and 
these mostly women, attended the public worship of 
God. Who will wonder, therefore, that at the begin- 


BERLIN. 


229 


ning of my labours in Berlin, I bad to figbt with a 
feeling of regret that rose up within me, that I had 
consented to the change which had brought me hither, 
and that a sorrowful home-sickness and longing after 
the church-life, and the dehghtful assemblies for the 
worship of God, of the Wupperthal, formed the key- 
note of my thoughts ? 

To the already-mentioned discouraging experiences, 
many of a more insignificant and unessential character 
were added, but which by no means seemed to counter- 
balance these feelings. Thus, among other things, it 
was a difficulty for me to change, at least in the winter 
time, the hour of the early morning public worship, 
during which every one had to bring with him his 
lamp to a cold dark church, from seven to eight o'clock, 
and after that the principal morning service, from nine 
to ten o’clock. Moreover, it cost me great trouble to 
bring about the arranging of a chamber for the service 
of confirmation at my own residence, and I only gained 
my object by repeated application to the highest 
ecclesiastical authorities. Then, ere I was aware of it, 
a circular from the Consistorium was sent to my house, 
which was evidently intended for me, directing me to 
remove the title of Dr, which I had legally acquired, 
from my name in the Church Register, publishing an 
order, according to which no clergyman was entitled to 
make use of his title of Doctor of Philosophy. Shortly 
after this, the theological faculty of the University of 
Berlin conferred on me the degree of Doctor of Theology. 
It made me sorry to be almost compelled to believe 
that the authorities placed immediately over me did 
not wish well to me. I surely was mistaken ; for the 
only ground for that could be that, without any fault 
of mine, they were not consulted in my immediate 


230 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


appointment ; and they were surely raised high above 
such a littleness as this. Yet it grieves me, even to 
this day, that I was for a moment constrained to doubt 
their friendly interest in me. 

Thus there were many things which conspired to 
humble me to the dust, and to lead me to prayer. 
The thought for a long time lay heavy upon me, that 
in my leaving Elberfeld for Berlin, I had acted in 
accordance with my own wishes, without having the 
comfort of thinking that I had the Divine sanction for 
so doing. But I was not too long depressed by this 
doubt. God the Lord began to comfort me. I had 
the longer the greater reason to look upon my new 
fieM of labour in a different and a more friendly light. 
Not only did my audiences perceptibly increase in 
number, so that within a short time every seat in my 
church was occupied, and even all available space filled ; 
but I felt myself sustained by the prayers of my people, 
and discovered evidences that the Gospel which I 
preached, with a joyful opening of my mouth, awakened 
corresponding feelings, and produced blessed fruits. I 
even saw a small band of beloved men of all ranks, 
increasing ever in number and in strength of Christian 
character, gathered around me in more intimate fellow- 
ship, among whom I often felt as happy as if I had 
suddenly been placed again amid the much loved 
circle of my dear friends in the Wupperthal. If the 
outward appearance of these new friends was some- 
what different, if their Christianity had more in it of 
the elements of sentimentalism, and if the language of 
their enthusiasm at times approached to the animation 
of the language of the stage, yet their sincerity, their 
faith in the blood of Christ, their love to the Lord, 
were the same as among the more robust and less 


BERLIN. 


231 


aesthetic believers of the Rhineland. In the much 
frequented religious services connected with missions, 
which I was accustomed to conduct, I found these dear 
friends always in great numbers around me ; and they 
will themselves, with me, joyfully call to remembrance 
the pleasant hours which we then spent in fellowship 
with one another. Many of the older persons amongst 
them have already departed to their home above ; others 
of them I have now and then the opportunity of 
meeting with, on the occasion of public festivals, in the 
neighbouring city of Berlin. 

It was, moreover, a notable and a joyful experience in 
Berlin, that the churches of the preachers who adhered 
to the Bible — and it is ground of thanks to God that 
now there is no longer a destitution of such preachers 
— were by far the most numerously attended. I do 
not also affirm that the number of their adherents 
among the population in general far exceeded that 
of those who had attached themselves to the rational- 
istically-inclined clergymen. Without doubt the fact 
was otherwise. Yet the adherents of the latter, for 
the most part, showed no interest in the Church, or 
the Word of God and the Sacraments. Perhaps 
they sent their children to the clergymen to be 
confirmed ; but they regarded themselves as having 
long ago outgrown all need of attendance on public 
ordinances. 

It would in any case contribute much to the ad- 
vancement of the kingdom of God in the capital, if the 
parishes were not too large, so that the pastors might 
be able in some degree to give special attention to the 
spiritual interests of the people. The number of 
churches and pastors in Berlin ought to be, at the very 
least, doubled. Hence, in consequence of the large 


232 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


extent of the parishes, the lamentable mechanism in al- 
most all the official functions of the clergy; the summary 
way in which the ordinance of baptism is celebrated, 
when sometimes as many as twenty children and more 
are presented at once, whose parents and god-fathers 
may be altogether unknown ; the continual performance 
of the funeral service (parentatio) beside the coffins and 
at the graves of departed persons, whose names even 
may be unknown ; and, above all, the long rows of com- 
municants, particularly on festival days, who are almost 
perfect strangers to the body and blood of the Lord — 
lamentable facts, which cannot be too deeply mourned 
over. Much has been done during several years past 
to mitigate the evil ; but all that has as yet been done 
is but an insignificant portion of what ought to be 
accomplished. 

With gladness do I call to remembrance the circle of 
preachers among whom I was welcomed after my en- 
trance on my duties in Berlin. Such associations exist 
everywhere ; but in none can the fellowship be more 
fraternal and cheerful than that which we enjoyed 
in the houses of the members in succession every Mon- 
day evening. The interpretation and elucidation of 
some book of the Bible naturally formed the founda- 
tion for our conversation during the first half of the 
evening, and we seldom separated from one another 
without carrying away with us some new exegetical or 
homiletic ideas, which we had gathered from each other 
during our conversation. After the scientific confer- 
ence had been closed, there followed a free conversation 
on all manner of pastoral matters, and a confidential 
exchange of experiences which had been gained dur- 
ing the week preceding. The confederation of the 
Evangelical Church confession cannot be conceived of as 


BERLIN. 


233 


assuming a purer and more perfect outward expression 
than it did among us. 

The members of that circle, two of whom have 
already shaken the dust of this earth from off their 
feet, were the following : — Couard, 1 the senior among 
the brethren, who was one of the first to open a way 
for biblical Christianity at a time when from the 
pulpits of Berlin the coldest rationalism was publicly 
and boastfully proclaimed ; Bachmann, the pastor of 
the Church of St James, and himself a James whom 
the little evangelical church in the distant city of 
Lisbon boasted of as its founder and first bishop, and 
who succeeded in building up, from its foundation to its 
very pinnacle, from the loose and fluctuating materials 
of the population of the . capital — a thing which was 
apparently impossible — a numerous congregation of in- 
telligent and steadfast members ; Friedrich Arndt, the 
anointed and undismayed witness for the Lord on the 
walls of Jerusalem, who never ceased to glorify Christ, 
changing not his voice, in accommodation to times 
and circumstances, to please friends or propitiate foes 
Btichsel, who had the courage, in addressing the most 
educated and mo'st religious of the people, to presup- 
pose in them the very lowest measures of Christian 
knowledge and of the life of faith, and to whom it was 
given, through “the foolishness of preaching/ 5 but in ser- 
mons charged with the electricity of personal conviction, 
and richly seasoned with unaffected religious humour, to 
bring many to the enjoyment of salvation ; Fournier, 
the French Protestant of the noblest mould, true and 
clear, of calm, intelligent decision, full of holy zeal, 
but withal a man of moderation ; Kober, the superin- 
tendent, who even in the brotherly circle did not for- 

i Died in 1865. 

P 


234 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

get his official character, using discipline and adminis- 
tering reproof at the right time ; Souchon, in whom 
there was seen something of his great ancestor and 
intellectual relative, Saurin ; Edward Kuntze, the 
unweariedly zealous and active city missionary to 
the heathen and the Jews of Berlin. He now rests 
from his labours, and his works have followed and still 
do follow him. The last of this fellowship was Braunig, 
the gentle spirit, who was snatched away from the 
altar of the Church militant to that of the Church 
triumphant, as Moses, the faithful servant of the Lord, 
formerly was, by the Neschika , 1 the kiss of the Lord. 

Very precious was this fellowship ! Who can doubt 
it ? That to the present day it continues a beloved 
circle of friends, the same as it formerly was, although 
since I was separated from it the divergent elements 
may have become somewhat more marked, I am glad to 
believe. I may here refer to Kober, who was then my 
colleague, and to his function amongst us as moderator. 
Sometimes his authority was needed at our round-table. 
Not that at any time our deportment was unbecoming 
the character of theologians ; yet it appeared occasion- 
ally to be somewhat more elastic and less restrained 
within rigid bounds than I was accustomed to in the 
pastoral conferences which we held in the Wupperthal. 
A fondness for wit was something quite natural to the 
Berliner, and it almost seemed as if that propensity 
remained even after the “ old man ” had been cast out. 
If it happened that the flashes of humour in our circle 
threatened on any occasion to pass beyond the bounds 

1 i.e. a kiss. Dent, xxxiv. 5, “ Moses, the servant of the Lord, died 

there, in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord,” or, as it may 
he rendered, “ at the mouth of the Lord” The Jews interpret the expression 
as meaning “ with a hiss from the mouth of the Lord,” that is, by an easy death, 
a evduuocaiot, a delightful, peaceful death. — T r. 


BERLIN. 


235 


of moderation, then Kober was wont, as the exorciser 
of the, evil spirit, to stand up, like a true Saxon, among 
us, and exercise his authority as the inflexible guardian 
of propriety and the enemy of everything that unneces- 
sarily went beyond the bounds of consistency. Under 
his castigatory admonitions, which at such times he 
addressed to us, everything quickly returned to the 
proper course again, and good humour and brotherly 
fellowship prevailed. 

It was regarded as a proper thing in Berlin that no 
one of the brethren should in any way interfere with 
another in the labours of the pulpit, or in pastoral 
work. Every one had his own parish and congregation, 
and limited his attention exclusively to it, being con- 
tented that others should also confine themselves to 
their own congregations. If I were required to' describe 
in few words the points of difference between the 
Berlin clergymen and those of the Lower Bhine, 
viewed as preachers, then I would grant to the former 
the preference in this respect, that they lay greater 
stress on the logical arrangement, the form and diction 
of their discourses ; that they take in a wider range of 
subjects, and not only draw within the sphere of their 
discussions, whatever be the immediate topic they have 
to handle, the deifications of art characteristic of the 
times, the prevailing aesthetic mis-education, the so- 
called “ Denkglaubigkeit ,” 1 and the phantom of a 

1 A Gnostic term — the watchword of Intellectualism, contrasted with 
“ Bibelglaubigkeit.” It was a word commonly appropriated by the old 
Rationalism as indicative of its fundamental principle, that Reason is the 
measure and rule of truth — that in matters of faith it decides what is true 
and what false. Schleiermacher regarded the essence of religion as consist- 
ing in feeling (the feeling of absolute dependence), and thereby took up a 
position opposed to that of Hegel, who placed the peculiar essence of reli- 
gion in the intellect — in knowledge. These two principles, represented by 
Schleiermacher on the one hand, and by Hegel on the other, were in conflict 


236 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


sentimentalism tinged with religion, but also more 
comprehensively touch upon the variety of the condi- 
tions of life, uncover with more versatility their hidden 
sores, and place in a clearer light the possibility, as 
well as the necessity, of their Christian transfiguration ; 
further, that while steadfastly adhering to the Confes- 
sion, they treat more tenderly the minor points and the 
manifold shades (Nuancen) of Christianity, they con- 
descend in a more friendly way to help by argument 
and reasoning those who are involved in doubts, and, 
on the whole, lay greater emphasis on the necessity of 
proving the existence of faith by a life of holiness. 

On the contrary, the sermons of the clergymen of 
the Lower Rhine are delivered more “ ore biblico the 
Holy Scriptures, not only of the New, but in equal 
measure of the Old Testament, are more fully presented 
for the spiritual edification of the congregation ; the 
article of the justification of the sinner through faith 
alone without works is more thoroughly discussed and 
placed more prominently before the minds of the people 
as the central doctrine of the whole Gospel ; the freeness 
of the grace of God in Christ more distinctly affirmed ; 
the boundary between grace and nature more sharply 
drawn ; and particularly the nature of the new birth 
more correctly declared and more absolutely set forth 
as the foundation of all personal Christianity. No 

during the age of Illuminism, and of the renovation in Germany. “ In a 
city so excitable and so dependent upon intellectual impulses as Berlin, 
Schleiermacher, with his freshness of life, his sympathy for individualities, 
his intellectual presence, his practical development of thought, and his 
rhetorical skill, was the man of the moment ; while Hegel, with the granite 
firmness of his dialectics, with his earnest, manly surrender to the objective 
power of life, for a long time attracted only a limited circle of men inquiring 
more deeply” ( Kahnis ). Marheinecke, Krummacher’s predecessor, was in 
this controversy on the side of Hegel, whose system was also a “ Denkglau- 
bigkeit.” — T r. 


BERLIN. 


237 


wonder, therefore, that in these churches more sudden 
“ awakenings,” and more powerful “ breakings through” 
into the divine life, should be more frequently met 
with than among the congregations of Berlin, where 
the Word of God is less frequently exhibited with the 
weight and force of the “ hammer that breaketh the 
rock in pieces,” but reveals for the most part its power 
only as a leaven gently penetrating the minds of the 
people, often for a long time imperceptibly. 

I know not whether in the one place or in the other 
the danger of spiritual self-deception be more immi- 
nent. But it is certain that here, in Berlin, one 
seldomer meets with those lively ebullitions of joy on 
account of experienced grace, and that confident cer- 
tainty of divine sonship, which is commonly met with 
among the congregations on the Bhine. 

Among the believing members of the Berlin congre- 
gations there were,. at the time of my entrance on my 
duties there, three men whose names worthily rank 
with that of the then already departed Baron von 
Kottwitz . 1 The first of these, Samuel Eisner, was the 
widely-known zealous agent and manager of the Bible 
and Tract Society. He was always ready to go forth 
to war, when he was needed, in defence of the honour 
of his Lord Jesus Christ ; and wherever he went he 
was unwearied in his endeavours to win others to the 
standard of Christ. A genuine native of the Athens 
on the banks of the Spree, he furnished in the whole 
tone of his life a striking proof that even the Berlin 
mother-wit might be elevated above the sphere of 
worldly life, and made subservient to the interests of 
* 

1 The leaders of the rising evangelical party at that time in Germany were 
Neander, Hengstenberg, Tholuck, Olshausen, Baron von Kottwitz, Count 
Voss, von Bethmann Holweg, and the Gerlachs.— Tr. 


238 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the kingdom of heaven. It is true that in standing 
forth in its defence he sometimes assumed the regal 
mien which was natural to him. There remained in 
him something of an autocratic spirit, which it will be 
difficult to find named among the benedictions of the 
Sermon on the Mount, according to which the meek 
alone will inherit the earth. His pastor Arndt knew 
how gentleness and meekness were needed in associat- 
ing with this beloved man ; but he also knew how 
thoroughly in course of time he became on all points 
master" of his impulsive natural disposition, and with 
what child-like joy and peace, resting on free grace 
alone, he at last departed to the eternal sanctuary. 

The second of the three to whom I refer was a 
noble Count , 1 whose heart was deeply moved at the 
godlessness and the spiritual destitution of the higher 
ranks of society. He acted as a missionary among 
those of his own rank, introducing into their saloons 
and drawing-rooms his own writings, which, like a 
kind of spiritual incendiary-letters, failed not to cause 
an excitement wherever they were carried. I know 
families which, by their means, received the first im- 
pulse towards self-reflection, and the entrance on an 
earnest Christian life. Yea, if at the present time in 
Berlin, more than in other places, the interests of the 
kingdom of God have awakened toward them the sym- 
pathies and the labours of the most distinguished ranks 
of society, very much of this happy state of things 
is due to the quiet but penetrating influence of the 
man of whom I now speak. Moreover, his evangelistic 
activity, which he carried on both by word and deed, 
was not confined to these higher circles alone, but 
manifested itself on all sides' wherever the interests of 
1 Count Amim-Blumberg. 


BERLIN. 


239 


the Foreign or the Home Missions were concerned. He 
understood how to make to himself friends of the un- 
righteous Mammon ; and he still practises this noble 
art, for God has to this day spared his life, and will, 
we hope, long spare it . 1 

The third whom I have in my mind shrinks hack 
into deepest insignificance in the presence of the other 
two. He was only Eisner’s satellite, and the bearer of 
his shield and helmet ; hut yet his name will long he 
held in remembrance in a wide extended circle. I 
refer to Dreger, the humble teacher of an elementary 
school, a man who prosecuted his path through life 
with meekness, but in whose heart the command, 
“ Feed my lambs,” found an echo, and who willingly 
recognised himself as a messenger whom the Lord sent 
forth into the highways and behind the hedges, that 
he might summon and gather in the halt and the lame 
and the blind, saying, “ Come, for all things are 
ready ! ” And he cried, and entreated, and invited* 
men everywhere, and his labour was not fruitless. 
The number can scarcely be reckoned up of those 
whom this lowly evangelist has led into the ways of 
righteousness, almost more by the clear, mild, shining 
light of his consistent life of faith, than by the thou- 
sands of Christian tracts which he scattered over the 
surging waves of the population of the capital, and by 
the awakening and warning Word which he was wont 
in simplicity to read at the religious meetings which he 
conducted. Many from the ranks of the burghers — 
men equally approved and equally warm at heart for 
the interests of the kingdom of God — associated them- 
selves with him in his work. Among such the 
names of Kampfmeyer, Griese, sen., and Lobeck, are 
1 He died in 1866. 


240 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


still remembered by tbe older Cbristians of Berlin, 
and I might add yet many more to the honoured 
list. 


It is true that, in regard to social life, Berlin, as 
might be expected, offered me many things of a 
pleasant and attractive kind which no other city had 
to offer. The Berliners will frankly confess, however, 
that they are indebted less to themselves, the native- 
l(£rn inhabitants of the city, than to strangers who 
have congregated there from the whole of Germany, 
for the fame which their city has acquired as “ the city 
of intelligence.” As the seat of the highest schools 
of learning in Prussia, the city of the first German 
University, and the nursery of all the fine arts and 
of the sciences, Berlin contains within itself an over- 
flowing fulness of the elements of education, and there- 
fore it exerts upon intellectual capacities, far and 
near, a powerful attraction. 

Among the places to which I specially delighted to 
resort, for the sake of the intellectual quickening which 
was certainly there to be experienced, I mention first 
the saloon of Eichhorn, who was at that time Minister 
of Worship, into which I had the honour of being in- 
troduced at the very first. Here were generally to 
be met with all the men who were of authority in the 
departments of science or art who resided in Berlin, or 
who might be only passing through the city. As con- 
stant visitors here, one was, as a general rule, sure to 
meet with Heinrich Steffens , 1 who was always boil- 
ing over with striking thoughts and strange fancies ; 

1 Under the impulse of Schelling’s profound views, an interpreter of the 
mysteries of nature. He sided with Dr Scheibel, of Breslau, in the re-action 
of old Lutheranism against the Union. He died in 1845. 


BERLIN. 


241 


Twesten , 1 who was thoroughly at home in all the 
regions of knowledge, and always brilliant, through 
a classic esprit de finesse ; 2 Schelling, the hero among 
philosophers, with a lion’s head, and with the friendly, 
innocent look of a child ; Julius Stahl , 3 the eagle-eyed, 
always appearing with stretched bow-string, and sur- 
passing all as a skilful dialectician ; the always 
animated court-preacher Friedrich Strauss ; the histo- 
riographer Ranke ; and many more of equal celebrity 
besides. 

Eichhorn’s saloon was resorted to also by a circle of 
noble, and for the most part, highly educated ladies ; 
and one rarely missed there foreigner native musicians 
and poets, who seasoned the conversation with remarks 
on musical and aesthetic subjects, while, as a general 
rule, we, on our part, stood before them with hat in 

1 August Detliv Christian Twesten succeeded Schleiermacher in 1834, as 
Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Berlin. He had pre- 
viously occupied from 1814 a similar position in the University of Kiel. 
As to Church politics, while denominationally a Lutheran, he is free from 
all exclusiveness and bigotry. He would conserve, though in a conciliatory 
way, the interests of Lutheranism within the United Church of Prussia. 
As a theologian, he agrees in the main with Schleiermacher that religion 
is primarily feeling, “ the feeling of absolute dependence” (schlechthiniges 
Abhangigkeits-Gefuhl) on God; yet he lays more stress than Schleier- 
macher did on knowledge, especially on the adoption of the views pro- 
pounded by the Church in her doctrinal standards. Starting from Schleier- 
macher, he has advanced toward a more positive and orthodox stand-point. 
— Tr. 

2 ouQpovvvYi — Scotice, “ gumption.” — Tr. 

3 A distinguished lawyer and professor at Berlin. He was bom of Jewish 
parents, at Munich, in 1802, and died 1861. His views of Christian tolera- 
tion, which he propounded in an address delivered at Berlin in 1855, called 
forth a reply from Chevalier Dr Bunsen, in a work entitled “ The Signs of 
the Times.” Stahl’s views of a State Church were based on the Jewish 
Theocracy, and were regarded by Bunsen as embodying the essence of in- 
tolerance. Hengstenberg sided with Stahl, Schenkel and Dorner with 
Bunsen. Dr Krummacher and the king held an intermediate position. 
The Bunsen-Stahl controversy marks an era in the progress of the Prussian 
Church. — T r. 


242 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

hand. But by far the most esteemed of all who were 
present on such occasions was always the amiable host 
himself, the much misunderstood and bitterly reviled 
Eichhorn, who was altogether free from the least trace 
of party fanaticism, and might, when compared with 
his successor in office, von Baumer, be called a liberal, 
and who, as Minister of Church Affairs, took to heart 
nothing so greatly as the opening of a way everywhere, 
by means in the highest degree temperate and judicious, 
for a pure Bible Christianity. He represented the 
mild an(| pacific intentions of his royal master, who 
was friendly to the Union, and to whom nothing was 
more hateful than the confessional animosities among 
Christians. 

To him belongs the honour of having laid the foun- 
dation for the independence of the Prussian National 
Church, by entrusting all its internal affairs to a purely 
ecclesiastical court, the “ Oberconsistorium,” 1 which is 
independent of the Minister of State. At the same 
time, he opened the way for a synodical constitution, 
and took care that the influential offices in the Church 
should always be filled by energetic men, who were 
animated by the Spirit of God. The name of Eichhorn 
has already an honoured place in the annals of the 
Prussian Church history, and posterity will not with- 
hold the crown due to the high services of that man, 
who was as humble as he was steadfast to his con- 
victions, and resolute and bold. 

The “ evening parties ” in the hospitable house of 
Twesten somewhat resembled the soirees in the minis- 
ter s hotel, only that in the former the fellowship 

1 There was previously only the Minister of Church Affairs, so that all 
matters connected with the Church were administered by State officers alone. 
See Note, p. 169 . — Tr. 


BERLIN. 


243 


enjoyed was more confidential, and young students 
were present along with the other guests. How 
much of an animating and instructive character pre- 
sented itself here also ! Here, as a digger after hidden 
treasures, I found the opportunity of gaining much 
intellectual wealth from conversations with such men 
as the astronomer Encke, who never said to us that in 
the stars he had not found God : the zoologist Lichten- 
stein, who only smiled compassionately at the naive 
confidence with which some of his modern colleagues 
proclaimed their doctrine, that instead of Adam, a 
baboon or orang-outang was the great progenitor of the 
human race ; the geographer Hitter, wjio listened, as few 
ever did, to the music of creation, and, according to the 
words of the Psalmist, proved that “ the earth is the 
Lord’s ; ” the philosopher Schelling, who practically 
confirmed the truth of that saying of Bacon’s, that 
philosophy, in its fundamental principles, always leads 
again back to God, and even to the Son of God ; the 
doctors of the law Stahl and Bichter, and the archae- 
ologists Piper and Lepsius ; the philologists Curtius 
and Zumpt ; and many more besides. And how well 
the accomplished host knew how to lead out into pro- 
minence the eminent men who were present, and to 
lay open for the benefit of all whatever gifts and talents 
and mental resources he found in the company ! And 
how well he understood, also, how to preserve the firma- 
ment clear and blue over the keenest discussions, and 
at the right time and the right place to open the 
barrier and let in humour upon the scene, that it 
might dissipate the gathering clouds, and smooth the 
brows that were becoming wrinkled ! A young lady 
experienced in the art always was present to entertain 
us with music and song ; and that the Graces might 


244 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


accompany the Muses, there were present also noble 
ladies adorning the social circle. 

In a somewhat more limited but not less distin- 
guished and attractive form, there were social evening 
entertainments in the hbtel of the then cabinet minis- 
ter General von Thile. The circle here was less exten- 
sive, and the object of the conversations was wholly 
religious. Yon Thile, as is well known, was one of the 
most confidential friends of Frederick Wilhelm iv., and 
there was no one who was held in higher honour than 
he was. He was out and out a Christian, who could 
say with Paul, “ For me to live is Christ, and to die 
is gain.” 1 

A purer man, one of a more steadfast character, sanc- 
tified through faith, and confirmed and strengthened 
by experience, and one more truly humble, I never met 
with. I believe that he never spoke an untruthful 
word, and that flattery never stained his lips. On one 
occasion, after an animated conversation with his royal 
master, when he asked leave to withdraw, because he 
hung upon him only as a stone, weighing him down, 
the king replied to him : “ Dear Thile, how could the 
clock continue its movements correctly without its 
weights ? ” On another occasion the king said to him : 
“ Thile, with these ideas you will run your head against 
a wall.” Whereupon he replied, “ May it please your 
majesty, many things which, when seen from a dis- 
tance, appear to be rocks, are really only painted paste- 
board ; the world belongs to those who have courage ! ” 
On the 20th March of that sorrowful year, I was acci- 
dentally present when the beloved man had just ex- 
changed, at the command of the king, his military coat, 
adorned with the iron cross, and all other possible 
1 Phil. i. 21. 


BERLIN. 


245 


insignia, for the simple dress of a civilian, having been 
dismissed from the office of a cabinet minister. I leant 
my head in sorrow ; but, on the contrary, with up- 
lifted head, and countenance cheerful as ever, he said 
to me, “But they will not, however, subdue me!” 
and he then departed, saying to me, as he went away, 
“ Farewell ; at a better time we shall meet again ! ” 
The “ better time ” never came for him indeed here 
below ; yet there, from the Jerusalem above, he 
will see the confident hopes which without fear he 
cherished regarding Prussia’s future come to their 
fulfilling. 

Quite a different atmosphere breathed around me 
from that which pervaded Thile’s saloon, when, as some- 
times happened, I joined the evening parties of the 
Countess Ahlefeld, of Munster and Dusseldorf, who was 
formerly known to me. She was afterwards wife of the 
General Liitzow, and became the rival and companion 
of his “ wild, mad chase,” and afterwards the friend of 
the poet Carl Immermann, who was wont to call her 
his “ Muse.” Around this amiable, highly cultivated, 
and graceful lady, there were commonly assembled 
only poets, male and female litterateurs, painters, and 
artists ; and the conversation was, for the most part, 
and always in the most elegant form, only on matters 
appertaining to art and belles-lettres. The ladies 
Ludmilla Assing and Frau Mundt (whose fictitious 
name was “ Louise Miilbach”), sometimes, however, 
took an excursion into the region of politics, but were 
always soon brought back again within the limits of 
harmless “aesthetic” chattering, by the lady of the 
house, whose aristocratic bearing was never laid aside. 
The Countess inclined more and more, as she advanced 
in life, toward positive Christianity ; and, according to 


246 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the report of a near relative, she died a “ penitent 
and she had truly great reason for being penitent, when 
she looked back on her previous life, although I became 
acquainted personally only with the respectable side of 
her character. As to her relation to Immermann, that 
poet has himself given abundant discoveries. She was a 
wealthy and stately personage ; yet she was not wholly 
guarded from the danger of becoming a sacrifice to that 
lax morality, originating in the time of Rousseau, 
which took a frivolous view of life and its object, which, 
alas ! is ^the prevailing view at the present day among 
a great part of our so-called “ haute volee ” 1 (a word 
which reminds one of “ haut gout ” 2 ). 

Very delightful, and in the highest degree beneficial, 
was my intercourse with Hengstenberg , 3 Stahl, and par- 

1 High quality. 2 High taste. 

3 Dr Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg was the son of a Westphalian clergy- 
man of the Reformed Church. He was horn in 1802. After completing 
his studies at Bonn, he became a pri vat-docent at Berlin, in 1824. He was 
soon afterwards raised to the rank of an extraordinary professor, and again 
to that of an ordinary professor ( see Note, p. 50) of Old Testament Exegesis. 
He led the <( extreme right” (conservative) wing of the orthodox party in 
the Established Church, and was the uncompromising opponent of all 
Rationalists and semi-Rationalists, all Latitudinarians and Liberals. Heng- 
stenberg, Ludwig von Gerlach, and Stahl, were called “the three popes” 
who, since the Revolution of 1848, controlled the destinies of the Church 
and State of Prussia. The “ Evangelische Kirchenzeitung,” commenced by 
Hengstenberg in 1827, and edited by him till the time of his death, was 
the exponent of his views on all questions affecting Church and State. De- 
parting from his original ground, he became more and more Lutheran and 
rigidly confessional in his views, and opposed to the Union, especially since 
1848. The “ Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung,” edited with very great 
ability by Professor Messner, of the University of Berlin, is the exponent of 
the views entertained by those favourable to the Union and to the Evan- 
gelical Alliance, and has since its commencement, eleven years ago, risen 
into a position of commanding influence. The recent death of Hengstenberg 
(on 28th May of the present year), after a lingering and painful illness, will 
be a serious loss to the party he represented, and, above all, a loss to the 
cause of Old Testament Exegesis, in which he occupied a place of the highest 
ability and usefulness. — T r. 


BERLIN. 


247 


ticularly with the dear August Neander. The first 
named stood then in the full strength of his life, which 
was wholly consecrated to the interests of the kingdom 
of God. His excellent wife, as if breathing constantly 
the freshness and beauty of spring, shed the light of 
joy and peace through his dwelling. His three children, 
a little daughter and two sons, grew up in health and 
in hope around him. How was he conceived of by 
•those who did not personally know him ? As sullen, of 
course, and with compressed lips always sharpening his 
polemical arrows behind a pile of yellow parchments, 
and murmuring excommunications. And was this 
truly his character ? No ! He was v a cheerful, kindly 
disposed man, of a fresh, florid countenance and friendly 
lips, only not altogether free from a certain medisance 
when speaking of the rationalists, but not as yet, at 
that time, when .speaking of the Reformed or the 
United Church. One felt himself quite at home when 
under his roof, and enjoyed the clearness and truth of 
all he said. Since that time the hand of the Lord has 
been heavy upon him. Three graves have devoured 
the most precious of all his earthly possessions. In 
these last years he has extended the lines of his theo- 
logical ideas and the basis of his operations beyond 
proper bounds. Yet he is, and continues to be, the 
Telemonian Ajax among those who contend for the 
honour of God and of His word. 

Stahl was, in the judgment of the public, regarded 
with much the same estimate as his companion in con- 
troversy, Hengstenberg. It was not understood by 
those unacquainted with him, that this earnest advo- 
cate for authority and ancient rights, which he often 
contended for from the tribune, could, as a host 
and a guest in the circle of his friends, be the most 


248 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


amiable, most pleasant, and the gentlest of men. And 
all this was true of him. How many never-to-be-for- 
gotten pleasant evenings have I spent beside him or 
in his company, enjoying animated intellectual conver- 
sation with him ! And what a cheering view was 
given of the child-like believing heart of that man, so 
greatly distinguished for his scientific and parliamentary 
ability, during our meetings which we consecrated to 
prayer and praise ! He has been represented as having 
a strong inclination towards self-complacency. And it 
may be ^hat such a disposition may have adhered to 
him as an inheritance transmitted from his fathers 
according to the flesh. But it is also certain that 
he called to remembrance, and with all earnestness put 
into practice, the Horatian saying, “ Furca expellas 
naturam ! ” It has also been said, as a reproach against 
him, that he kept himself too much reserved and apart 
even from those with whom he agreed in opinion. And, 
indeed, it cannot be said that he was at any time 
surrounded by a numerous company of friends. He 
examined closely all who came to him, and after that 
considered how far he could give himself up to them. 
He has been particularly cried down as a sophist ; and 
truly it may be granted that he possessed an extraor- 
dinary dialectic talent, and that his ambition, nourished 
by his being accustomed to victory, may have, uncon- 
sciously to himself, led him astray into fallacies and 
deceptive arguments ; but in his innermost being he 
was an honourable man, who was devoted to truth ; 
and he would not have been a human being, had not at 
times also some spectral demon held the mirror of its 
jugglery before him. 

But such reproaches as these, which gained cur- 
rency against Stahl, were never heard against August 


BERLIN. 


249 


Neander , 1 who was, like him, also of Jewish descent. 
Who in all the world could ever bring it as a charge 
against this man, in whose person there seemed to be 

1 Neander was born at Gottingen in 1789. He was the youngest son of 
Emmanuel- Mendel, a Jewish pedlar. He was called David. His mother, 
related to Mendelssohn the philosopher ( see Note, p. 98), was a pious 
woman, and, after her removal to Hamburg, devoted herself to the training 
of her children. Young David Mendel devoted himself to study with 
surpassing earnestness and success. The study of Plato, the influence of the 
romantic school of Tieck and Schlegel, but, above all, Schleiermacher’s 
“ Discourses on Religion” (Note, p. 62), led him to the conviction of the 
truth of the Christian religion. He took the decisive step in 1806, when he 
was seventeen years of age, of acting on this conviction. He was baptized, 
and adopted the name, John Augustus William Neander. The name 
Neander (which means new man) he adopted in compliment to his youth- 
ful Christian associate, Wilhelm Neumann. Neander now prosecuted his 
theological studies at Halle and Gottingen. At the former of these univer- 
sities he heard the lectures of Schleiermacher, and received a further impulse 
in the direction of the Christian faith. From Halle he and others of his 
fellow-students had to flee after the battle of Jena, having been plundered 
by the French of all they had. He arrived at Gottingen, where he con- 
tinued his studies with unabated zeal. After completing his curriculum, 
and being admitted a candidate, he began to deliver lectures as a privat- 
docent at Heidelberg. He was soon after promoted to the rank of an extra- 
ordinary professor. In 1813 he was called to the office of Professor of 
Church History in the University of Berlin, which henceforth became the 
sphere of his brilliant career, till his deeply lamented death in 1850. At 
the funeral oration (Grabrede) pronounced at his grave, Krummacher said 
of him: “One of the noblest of the noble in the kingdom of God, a prince of 
Zion, the youngest of the Church fathers, has departed from us.” Dr Schaff, 
one of his pupils, thus affectionately speaks of him : “ As a man and a 
Christian, he was universally esteemed even by those who regarded him 
either as too orthodox or too latitudinarian. His absolute honesty, unaffected 
kindness, and deep piety, were beyond all possible doubt. Supernatural 
grace had regenerated his heart, and adorned and perfected his natural 
virtues. Simplicity, humility, and love, the noblest gifts of grace, were the 
most prominent traits of his character. He possessed them in a degree in 
which they are rarely found in this world. With him there was no contra- 
diction between theory and practice, head and heart. All empty show and 
hypocrisy, all pride and vainglory, he most heartily despised. He was 
extremely kind, liberal, and charitable in his feelings, although not free from 
occasional outbreaks of passion, and vehemence against certain theological 
tendencies, which he regarded as dangerous, especially the Hegelian Pan- 
theism.” His great excellence lies in the department of church history, in 

Q 


250 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


blended into one a highly learned Church father and a 
simple child, that he manifested a spirit of self-suffi- 
ciency, or a shallow reserve, or sophistry in any form ? 
I never met a man to whom that testimony of the Lord 
regarding Nathanael, “ Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
whom there is no guile !” was ever so fully and unre- 
servedly applicable as it was to him. In reality, one 
could not but be convinced, not only that the last 
remains of Jewish leaven had been removed out of him 
— for that was true — but that in him also the old man 
had bedh completely subdued. For never was the least 
trace of envy, or ambition, or jealousy, and such like 
vices, found in him ; and if he ever broke out into a 
violent passion, which did happen when the Hegelians 
or the Democrats were mentioned, his anger was like 
that of an innocent child. What I here mention seems 
to contradict the fact that he publicly separated him- 
self from association with the conductors of the “ Evan- 
gelische Kirchenzeitung .” 1 But in that step there was 

the study of which his labours created a new and important era. Schleier- 
macher first opened the way, from the region of dark and dreary rationalism, 
into the region of Christian truth. Neander followed, and widened the 
path, and penetrated further into the realms of Christianity, leading with 
him many whom he animated with his own pious enthusiasm. Tholuck, 
Olshausen, and Hengstenberg carried on the good work that had been begun 
— carried it further, and enriched the Church with the treasures of the 
Divine Word. Among all the divines of Germany of modem times, 
Neander was pre-eminent for the wide extent and beneficial nature of his 
influence, which continues to the present day. — T r. 

1 Hengstenberg inserted in the “ Evangelische Kirchenzeitung,” in 1830, 
an article from the pen of Steiger, one of his correspondents, assailing 
the system of Schleiermacher as semi-rationalistic and pantheistic in its 
character. The severity of this attack offended Neander, who immediately 
withdrew from all connection with Hengstenberg in the conducting of that 
journal. Hengstenberg’s stem and uncompromising attitude in the main- 
tenance of his opinions put him out of harmony with Neander, who was 
mild and conciliatory in his temper. Yet the two distinguished men 
cherished a warm regard for each other as scholars and Christians ; and on 
Neander’s death Hengstenberg was not slow to publish (1851) a glowing 


BERLIN. 


251 


manifested only the mildness of the large-hearted man, 
who could not bear that they who were not fettered by 
sheer heterodoxy, but by reason of their earnest striving 
and yearnings after truth, appeared to be not far from 
the kingdom of God, should be placed under the ban 
as given over to unbelief, and as the enemies of Christ. 
He himself, as alas ! his “ Leben Jesu” 1 bears witness, 
still clung to many heresies ; but thereby he so much 
the better knew that one, in spite of these, might 
recognise our Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart 
as his divine Mediator, Saviour, and Sanctifier, and 
with faith and love might embrace and cling to 
Him as such. His very presence was truly edifying, 
and fitted to impart peace ; and how many have felt, 
when, stepping carefully over the open folios which lay 
scattered on the floor of his room, they approached 
the study table where he sat, as if they had entered 
into a sanctuary ! Talkativeness was not his weakness ; 
but what he spake was always “with grace and seasoned 
with salt.” How valuable, deep, and thoughtful were 
the ideas to which I have often heard him give expres- 
sion on particular aspects of the life of our Lord, and 
on the characters of diverse persons who have appeared 
on the pages of Bible and Church history, as well as on 
the happiness of believing Christians in this world and 
in the world to come ; and how willingly and thank- 
fully have I always listened to the acute and excellent 
remarks he felt himself constrained now and then to 
make to me, with truly touching delicacy and modesty, 
on this or that point which I had referred to in a ser- 
mon ; for he constantly attended public worship, and 

testimony to the high esteem in which he had always held his colleague 
(See Schaff).— Tr. 

1 “ Life of Jesus.” 


252 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


was one of my most regular hearers. I reckon it as a 
great honour to me that this man, one of the fairest 
and noblest ornaments of the Church of Christ, and one 
of the most prominent and laborious theologians of 
modern times, counted me worthy of his confidence, 
and, in proof of this, that he dedicated to me the 
new edition of his splendid and immortal work, “ Der 
heilige Bernard und sein Zeit- Alter.” 1 And who among 
all his friends in the neighbourhood of Berlin, who yet 
walk on this earth, thinks not, with a heart swelling 
with joy, of the entertainments at which every year, on 
his birth-day, he assembled us around his hospitable 
table. On such occasions the highly welcome duty 
devolved on me, in name of the other guests, of offer- 
ing him our hearty salutation in the form of a toast. 
Alas ! it also devolved on me to offer our farewell beside 
his grave. I spoke on that sad occasion also in name 
of his friends. How copiously our tears poured down 
upon his coffin, and how many a “ Have pia anima ! ” was 
then whispered from true sorrowing hearts ! But how 
many a glance was directed with joyful hope upward 
also to heaven, which seemed to become more and 
more our blessed home, by the thought that we 
would once more again behold, amid the glory of im- 
mortality, that beloved face ! 

I must also here not omit to make mention of a 
house into which I often entered, and which afforded 
me and mine, in the most friendly and genial manner, 
the continued experience of the whole manner of our 
life in our home on the Rhine. I mean the house of 
Strauss in Lenne Strasse, No. 3, at that time a house 
blessed with the highest prosperity and happiness, but 
now a monument of departed joys, breathing forth a 
1 u St Bernard and his Times.” 


BERLIN. 


253 


sigh for those who once inhabited it. The Strausses, 
husband and wife, transplanted, as I had been, from 
the mountain stream of the Wupper to the banks of 
the peaceful flowing Spree, knew intimately how to 
blend into harmonious symphony a free, social inter- 
course with the well-regulated manners of the noblest 
culture. One felt himself unrestrained in the circle which 
they were wont to gather around them ; and whoever 
had not done so already, very soon felt himself induced 
to set sail also with his little ship of thoughts and 
sentiments on the never-failing stream of intellectual, 
animating, cheerful conversation which was carried on. 
I have met with few men who possessed the power at 
will to arouse to intellectual activity all around him in 
the same degree as Strauss. Not only did this his 
enviable peculiarity rest on the lively sympathy he felt 
in all human interests, of whatever kind they might be ; 
but it was above all his true, upright, benevolent, 
sympathising heart which quickly made itself per- 
ceptible to any one through the oftentimes stormy 
waves of his excited, animated conversation, and as 
quickly loosened the bonds of the spirit, the mind, and 
the tongues of all. Music and song, for the most part 
of a religious character, and particularly of a liturgical 
character, reading and conversation, little extempore 
addresses on some given theme, and humorous table- 
talk, filled up the pleasant evenings ; and if at any 
time the waves of the conversations or of the disputa- 
tions threatened to break through the proper bounds, 
it was the intelligent housewife, eminently endowed 
with the virtues of a ruler — she was one of the von 
der Heydt family — who applied the remedy, and re- 
minded us of what was due and right. 

Among the guests who were to be met with in 


254 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Strauss’s house, were, among others, the imperial gene- 
rals, von der Groeben and von Diest, and their families ; 
Professors Hengstenberg and Lepsius ; the musicians 
Grell and Keithardt ; the sculptor Drake, and many 
other distinguished personages besides ; and there was 
also never wanting a number of students skilful in 
music, or otherwise highly gifted, the friends of 
Strauss’s sons, who, in one way or another, contributed 
greatly to the general enjoyment. On the 23d July of 
this year (1863), we found ourselves again gathered 
together in the hall where life, on its brightest and 
happiest side, had so often smiled upon us. But on 
this occasion there stood in the midst of us a coffin 
covered with flowers and palm branches. It was the 
coffin, alas ! of the amiable and hospitable master of 
the house. The grave of his wife is far away in the 
churchyard at Carlsbad. Here we might well breathe 
forth again the old sigh, “ Sic transit gloria ! ” Yet we 
could not but, at the same time, think also of another 
glory different from that which so soon fades away, 
the glory which now shines around the departed one. 
We accompanied his remains to their last earthly rest- 
ing-place, and with sorrowing heart, and yet not with- 
out comfort also, we heard at the opened grave the 
words : “ 0 man, thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt 
again return ; but Jesus Christ, thy Saviour, will 
awaken thee again from thy slumber at the last day ! ” 


I now return to the congregation of Trinity Church. 
My satisfaction with my sphere of official labour was 
certainly now on the increase. The number of ear- 
nest souls seeking after salvation was now greater than 
ever. Many sick-beds and death-beds — I call to remem- 


BERLIN. 


255 


brance here particularly that of a young Swedish singer 
— afforded me encouragement when I saw the cheering 
evidences of the triumph of faith and hope which were 
there manifested. The King, whom I had now the 
happiness and the honour of seeing more frequently, 
once said to me, “You will find that the soil even of 
the Church of Mark 1 is sandy; yet,” he continued, en- 
couragingly, “ if diligently and faithfully cultivated, it 
is capable of bearing every noble plant.” I have found 
this confirmed at least in Berlin, though in a compara- 
tively limited circle. I often thought, notwithstanding 
the large numbers of hearers who crowded my church, 
that all my efforts were fruitless ; and that feeling of 
regret, which had well-nigh overpowered me at the 
commencement of my official labours, threatened again 
to return upon me. But I soon saw here and there, 
on the field I cultivated, to the quickening and comfort 
of my depressed mind, according to the parable of our 
Lord, “ first the blade, then the ear ; after that the 
full corn in the ear,” and hoped that I might soon 
gather home into the garner full sheaves of wheat. 
My hopes arose in fairest blossom, when, lo ! the dread- 
ful hail-storm of the Catastrophe , under the conse- 
quences of which to this day we mourn, fell with 
desolating effect on the harvest-field of the Church. 


The month of March, of the year 1848, brought a 
dark eclipse over our land. The horrors accompanying 
it had already for a long time been preparing under 
our very eyes. Already, several weeks before the fatal 
1 8th, I could scarcely force my way through the masses 
of the people that were assembled together in the 
1 See Note, p. 120. 


256 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

streets, and particularly in the “ unter den Linden ” 
street, as I returned from our ecclesiastical social meet- 
ings. Standing opposed to them were cavalry regi- 
ments, quietly drawn up in their ranks, with their swords 
in their sheaths. To our inquiry at one of the sergeants, 
why they looked with so much apparent unconcern on 
the wild tumult of the people, the answer was returned : 
“We have no orders.” To this day I have the firm 
conviction that, had these “ orders ” which he meant 
been given, the whole Catastrophe would have been 
avoided. How this came about was to me a mystery, 
the key to which I found only in the supposition that 
God the Lord had determined to send upon us that 
calamity as a merited judgment ; for when He purposes 
to destroy, then He acts in accordance with that pro- 
phecy which is recorded by Isaiah : “ Behold, I will 
proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, 
even a marvellous work and a wonder ; for the wisdom 
of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding 
of their prudent men shall be hid.” 1 Enough. On 
the 18th of March the storm of revolution burst 
forth. Two of my children had on that day gone to 
walk in the Thiergarten (Zoological Garden), when a 
man who knew them came up to them, and advised 
them to hasten home, for there had been an outbreak 
in the city. In order to reach our home they had to 
climb over a barricade. But for the first time we 
realised the seriousness of the situation, when looking 
from our windows we saw, at the point where the 
“ Tauben Strasse ” terminates in the “ Gensd arm 
market,” an omnibus overturned, in order that the 
way might be blocked up, and then an armed rabble 
rushing onward into our street with the cry, “ Let the 
1 Is. xxix. 14. 


BERLIN. 


257 


doors be opened, for the good of the citizens/’ 1 Great 
was our amazement and terror, but greater was our 
sorrow, that such an event could happen under the 
reign of the most amiable, benevolent, and most pater- 
nal of kings ! The strife began — but now far too late. 
The “ Gensd’arm market ” presented to us once more 
the incomprehensible spectacle of a strong detachment 
of cavalry stationed in it, looking quietly and without 
concern not only on the wild, excited masses of the 
people, but also on the erection of barricades. When 
at length they were erected, then for the first time 
the brave riders, whose patience had been put to a 
severe test, rode forward with drawn swords, and with 
a courage which, one or two hours before, would have 
cleared the streets, without that sad sacrifice which 
they had to lament. 

The tide of battle rose from moment to moment as 
the night advanced. The fearful insurrectionary cries, 
the continual pealing of the alarm-bells, the crash of 
the platoon firing in our very neighbourhood, and the 
reverberation of the cannon at a distance, made the 
bravest hearts to tremble. My house was full of weep- 
ing and lamentation. Several young persons, among 
whom was the present pastor of Olshausen in Silesia, 
who had been on a friendly visit to my house, were 
now unable to penetrate through the crowds that filled 
the streets, so as to reach their own homes. They 
remained with me, much to our comfort and support, 
during that trying night. Towards three o’clock in 
the morning, the wild uproar of battle without seemed 
somewhat to abate. When the morning dawned it had 
altogether subsided. We opened our windows and 
were overpowered with joy when we saw the faithful 
1 “ Die Hausthiir auf, zum Wohl der Burger !” 


258 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DE KRUMMACHER. 

soldiers busily engaged in removing the barricades. W e 
ventured out into the streets, and some of my family 
went farther out into the town. And what was now 
the state of matters? The victory was everywhere 
wholly on the side of the military. And yet ! was 
there no need or reason for all that followed ? — The 
departure of the faithful army, crowned with fame ; the 
arming of the “ Burgerwehr ” (municipal guard), in 
their stead ; the granting of a “ charte,” after the 
French model ; alas, several other things also, over 
which I spread the veil ; and finally, for nine long 
months, a s^ate of anarchy, from the terror of which the 
aristocracy removed their coats of arms from their 
carriage-doors, the ' “ haute finance ” conveyed their 
gold and silver to a place of safety ; those in favour 
of the King removed their names from their door-bells, 
and thousands found it advisable to go about in clothes 
as shabby as possible, and in old worn-out hats and 
caps. The conquered proudly surrounded their brows 
with the laurel of the conquerors. 

A whole chain of mysteries is stretched out before 
me when I place myself back again in the midst of 
those sorrowful days ; and I am always constrained to 
come to the one conclusion, that God wished to make 
us feel His chastening hand upon us, and at the same 
time to open up to our view the depths of moral and 
social ruin into which a great part of the ungrateful 
and reprobate people had fallen. 

Next after the military and the nobles, faithful 
ministers of the Gospel were in that sorrowful time 
especially the objects of hatred to the dominant party. 
It happened that my name also was several times hon- 
oured in finding a place in insolent placards posted at 
the corners of the streets. One of my children, who, on 


BERLIN. 


259 


one occasion, tore down one of these offensive placards, 
had to pay several groschens for the offence, for it 
was a time when there “ was no judge in the land,” or 
rather when every one assumed the office of a judge as 
it pleased himself. That the clergymen, with few 
exceptions, took part in the funeral procession to 
Friedrichshain cemetery, was afterwards regarded as a 
great reproach to them. I confess that I allowed myself 
to be led into a participation in these processions by the 
example of the highest dignitaries of the Church, and 
of the large majority of my brethren in office — the 
bishop and the court-preachers marched at their head — 
and I could not quiet myself with the consolation which 
was often suggested to me, that the clergy are required 
to accompany to the place of burial the remains of all, 
except of suicides, who belong to their parishes, and 
that there were several from my parish who fell as 
“ heroes of the barricades.” Yet it is to me a deeper 
cause of regret that, on the very first Sabbath after the 
insurrection, I was even led to yield to the earnest 
entreaty of several of my friends, that for once I should 
use, instead of the accustomed prayer of intercession, 
that which is found in the, “ short Liturgy,” in which 
supplication is offered briefly and summarily for the 
grace of God, “ for the King and the whole of his king- 
dom.” They assured me — indeed, as I afterwards 
found out, without any just foundation — that the 
special introduction into the prayer of the names and 
of the separate members of the royal family would 
lead at once to a public manifestation of hatred on the 
part of those attending the church. I regret it even 
to this day that, by a motive which partly consisted of a 
cowardly fear, I was led to comply with the suggestion. 
But if the “ Kreuz Zeitung ” at that time assailed in 


260 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


a pretty definite way them who had acted from motives 
similar to those which had influenced me, it renounced 
its principles, according to which it regarded itself as 
the journal specially called to hold out an arm of defence 
over the Church, and to protect the authority and influ- 
ence of those who filled ecclesiastical offices. 

To our great joy we perceived that the hurtful 
influence which the fearful aspects of the times had 
begun to exert on the attendance at public worship 
was now gradually disappearing — yea, that after a few 
weeks, the churches were again filled as before ; and, 
indeed, that to many of them the people crowded in 
greater numbers than ever. It availed, above all, to 
heal the people of their revolutionary fever, that, in 
the terrible commotions of that time, they read the 
hand- writing of a holy and righteous God, and learned 
to understand the loud call thereby addressed to them 
to repentance and contrition before Him, so that He 
might in His mercy turn away again His anger from 
us, and not visit us with yet heavier judgments. 
Besides, from my intercourse with the congregation, 
I became the longer the more firmly convinced that 
the revolution would never have broken out among 
the people of Berlin, if they had not been prompted 
thereto by the swarm of foreign emissaries who had 
stealthily insinuated themselves amongst them, chief 
among whom the Poles are to be named. They wanted 
both the courage, and that intensity of hatred, and 
that fanatical love of freedom, which was necessary to 
their taking the initiative in such a work. Even the 
violent democrats could not altogether conceal a certain 
love to their King ; and when he rode through the city 
after the storm, many of them regarded themselves as 
fortunate in being permitted to touch his horse. An 


BERLIN. 


261 


easy good-nature, in spite of all that had happened, 
formed one of the fundamental features in the character 
of the “true” Berliner; and if he is at any time ex- 
cited and made furious, yet he is easily pacified and 
reconciled again. How many examples confirmatory 
of this have I seen, and how many endeavours to effect 
reconciliation have I been engaged in, when it devolved 
upon me to touch the feelings of married persons who 
were living at variance with each other, and to act 
upon them so as to move them ! 

I would regard myself as deficient in due loyalty, if 
in this place — and after I have shown that I do not 
at least reckon, among the prominent characteristics of 
the Berliner, a rash determination to act — I did not 
mention that our dear King Frederick Wilhelm iv. is 
a true Berliner. Yet there flowed in his veins also 
other blood ; and a firm, resolute, manly courage is 
one of the hereditary virtues of the house of Hohen- 
zollern. Of this he did not fail, under all circum- 
stances, and particularly at that time, to give very 
remarkable proof. Also the Prince Charles, the King s 
illustrious brother — whose house, which stood near to 
my own, I often visited during those days of terror — 
never for a moment failed to maintain a calm, un- 
daunted attitude, and a noble knightly bearing. 
Nevertheless the King had, along with the air of the 
capital which he had breathed in common with the 
Berliners, imbibed also somewhat of its natural spirit, 
which, as it pervaded him, underwent a process of 
higher development and elevation. As such I reckon, 
along with his disposition to wit and humour, a royal 
heart easily moved with compassion. Even during 
that night so dark with the storm of revolution, 
when the city authorities came to him, and with tears 


262 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

besought him to put a stop to the operations of his 
brave soldiers, he showed himself susceptible — yea, 
according to the opinions of many too susceptible — 
even though, at the same time, General Thile ventured 
to interpose and whisper to him, “ I hoped rather to 
see your Majesty in the midst of the tumult without, 
riding at the head of your battalions.” His Hohen- 
zollern knightly blood had well-nigh impelled him to 
do this ; but his mild and gentle heart — disposed to 
reconciliation and pardon, and believing, even in the 
last extremity, in humanity and in his people — pre- 
vailed with him . 1 

He who has not been a witness of it, cannot picture 
to himself the suddenness and completeness of the 
change which has been wrought upon the city since the 
outbreak, now nine months ago — particularly, at least, 
in its external aspect, in the more fashionable and ele- 
gant part of it. The brilliance of the court and of 
fashionable society, which formerly spread a splendour 
over the whole city, was now wholly extinguished, and 
instead of it all was plebeian plainness. No equipage 
was to be seen on the streets save that of the doctor ; 

1 Frederick Wilhelm iv. succeeded his father on the throne of Prussia in 
1840, and died 2d Jan. 1861. On the 22d of March 1848, after his troops 
had suppressed the revolutionary outbreak, he issued a proclamation “ re- 
commending the cordial union of German princes and people under one 
guiding hand, offering himself to be that guide ; the fusing and dissolving 
the name of Prussia into that of Germany, and abolishing the censorship of 
the press. The populace assembled in delight ; an accidental quarrel arose 
with the soldiery, more blood was shed, but the King had the prisoners 
released, nominated a popular ministry, and proclaimed a general amnesty, 
and again all was tranquil. But after the meeting of the Constituent 
German National Assembly at Frankfurt had elected Archduke John the 
Lieutenant-General of Germany, the King’s ardour cooled.” Then began a 
reactionary movement back towards the old political state of things. 

The royal house of Prussia is descended from the counts of Zollern, a 
little county forming part of the Suabian Alp. — T r. 


BERLIN. 


263 


and a gentleman on a riding-horse was nowhere to be 
met with. Ladies and gentlemen were to be seen 
walking on foot on the muddy streets. When one day, 
along with some friends, we went out to the Pichels- 
berg to breathe the fresh air, we were saluted by 
crowds of insolent youths, who were walking on the same 
road, with hisses and whistling, because we were driving 
in a carriage while they walked on foot. The guard- 
houses at the city gates and at the castle were occupied 
by crowds of men wearing the long coat of the citizen 
and felt hats, and presented to the passers by not 
seldom the spectacle of the guards sitting with their 
wives and children, amid clouds of tobacco smoke, 
around the coffee-pot or beer-jug. One met in all 
places with swaggerers, sans-cullottes, and drunken 
vagabonds. But whoever wished to see in full display 
the manifold evils of that time, needed only to go for 
once to the beer-tents of the Thiergarten, or of such 
localities in the precincts of the city, when he would 
hear things which would have been worthy of the 
wildest Jacobite club, and be a spectator of sights of 
which it were “ a shame even to speak.” 

Who would ever have dreamed that the foundations 
of all morality in a great part of our population were so 
thoroughly corrupt and decayed, as was seen to be the 
case in the terrible experiences of that time ? Faith, 
piety; respect for divine and human authority — all 
were gone. And in the place of these moral powers, 
by which the world is preserved from falling to pieces, 
there had sprung up lawlessness, frivolity, and the 
grossest materialism. At an ecclesiastical conference 
which was afterwards held, some one, to the momentary 
astonishment of many of us, spoke of the year *48 as 
“ ein Jahr des Heils ” (a year of salvation) ; and it was 


264 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


so of a truth, in so far, namely, as it disclosed the 
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores of society, 
which were beyond all previous conception. W e 
preachers could no longer delay a moment the duty to 
the discharge of which henceforth all means within our 
reach were brought into operation. The “ Inner Mis- 
sion ” 1 came into operation before a name was found 

1 Dr Wichem, when only a candidate for the ministry, animated by the 
spirit of the Gospel, founded in 1833, at the village of Horn, near Hamburg, 
the “ Rauhe Haus ” (Rough House, at that time an old dilapidated farm- 
house), for the reclaiming and educating of the vagrant children to be met 
with in Hamburg. The institution has grown and expanded on all sides, 
till it is now one of the most interesting and important benevolent associations 
in the world. The founder of this great institution still lives, a blessing to 
the Church of his Fatherland. The Inner Mission owes its activity and 
success to his zealous, self-denying labours. Dr Schaff, in his work on 
“ Germany and its Universities,” &c., to which we have already frequently 
referred, thus describes the aim of the Inner Mission : “It refers to domes- 
tic heathenism, which has crept into German Protestantism to such a fearful 
extent, and it labours to reclaim it to living Christianity. It comprehends 
in one organic whole the various efforts already commenced before by separ- 
ate societies — but now carried on with more system and rigour — for the 
temporal and spiritual benefit of the poor, the sick, the widow, the orphan, 
the stranger, the emigrant, the prisoner, the travelling journeyman ; the 
distribution of good books and tracts ; the supply of destitute charges with 
the means of the Gospel ; the founding of young men’s Christian associa- 
tions ; the arrangement of courses of lectures on instructive and useful 
topics to mixed audiences in large cities ; the training of deacons and 
deaconesses, and in fact the whole field of Christian philanthropy.” Wichern 
placed himself at the head of these noble Christian efforts. At the first 
meeting of the Kirchentag, at Wittenberg (Sept. 1848), when the outbreak 
of the wild revolutionary spirit threatened the overthrow of all the German 
States, he eloquently advocated the cause of the Inner Mission. On that 
occasion he said : “ During fifteen years past the thought and hope has ani- 
mated me with ever increasing force and clearness, that our Fatherland, the 
heart of Europe, might yet produce from its bosom a society and confedera- 
tion of faith and love, offering itself as a sacrifice to the Church and the country 
— a society endowed with the resources of learning, the wisdom of states- 
manship, the power of political and ecclesiastical government, and with the 
spirit of the eternal mercy of God, from which alone can proceed the salva- 
tion of nations. This hope appeared to most men a mere phantom. The 
cover must first be removed from the eyes of all. This the hand of God has 
done in 1848 : the abyss is open, the ground lies ploughed, and ready to re- 


BERLIN. 


265 


for it. We began in Berlin with the founding of an 
“Evangelical Union for ecclesiastical purposes;” and 
how many unions of a similar tendency followed that 
one within a short time afterwards ! There then pre- 
vailed among all the clergymen who had faith in Christ, 
the spirit of the most unclouded brotherly harmony. 
The common necessity under which we all sighed, 
afforded little room for the consideration of Confessional 
differences, which, at a later period, crept in. The city 
of God, as such, appeared to be in danger. How could 
we, in these circumstances, be zealous against each 
other about the boundaries of the separate courts which 
we occupied within it ? Stahl and 'Nitzsch ; Hengsten- 
berg and von Miihler ; Lutheran, Reformed, and Union- 
ist ; Episcopalian and Presbyterian : all stood together 
with one heart and one soul in the breach ; and thus it 
happened that, while one could hear almost every day 
the alarm-signals of the drum and bugle, and skirmishes 
between the Biirgerwehr and the “ Beds” continued, 
our undertakings against the anti-Christianity which 
was growing up luxuriantly around us did not remain 
unblessed. 

ceive the divine seed of a faith working by love, that it may grow up and 
unfold its glory. A day of God, a day of salvation for our Church in our 
dear Fatherland, has arisen with the revolutionary events. ... If the Church 
is.to become the fountain of the Christian life of the nation, it must make 
the work of the Inner Mission its own.” Since that time Wichern has 
been the great leader in the gigantic work carried on with most blessed 
results in Germany. — T r. 


R 


CHAPTER XI. 


SUPPLEMENT. BERLIN AND POTSDAM. 

TTERE, alas! the Autobiographer breaks the thread 
*-■*- of his narrative ; from what cause we know not. 
We are almost inclined, however, to think that it was 
from private reasons that he did so, when we consider 
the rich abundance of materials which from this point 
onward presented themselves in the scenes of his busy 
life for continuing his undertaking. Not only did he 
take an active part in that same year in the first meeting 
of the Kirchentag 1 at Wittenberg, an association in- 

1 Church Diet. -This is a free, unofficial association of ministers and lay- 
men belonging to the Lutheran, Reformed, United Evangelical, and Moravian 
Communions, formed for the purpose of promoting the interests of Christi- 
anity. Rationalists were from the first hostile to it ; and the rigid churchly 
Lutheran party soon withdrew from it because a confederation of Churches 
of different confessions was irreconcilable with the principles of the 
Lutheran Church. Dr Schaff, in his work on “ Germany,” thus speaks of 
its origin : — “ The German Church Diet took its rise in the eventful year 
1 848, when all the thrones of Europe — save those of England, Belgium, and 
Russia — trembled, and the very foundations of civil and religious society 
seemed to give way, to make room, as was to be feared, to a reign of ration- 
alism, atheism, and Satanism. It appeared, after the storms and earthquakes 
of revolution, as a rainbow of peace and promise on the horizon of Germany, 
and has outlived the commotions and mushroom creations, the bright hopes 
and dark fears of the memorable year of its birth. It is true it was prepared 
long before by the pastoral conferences which, since the days of the revival 
of religious life, assembled annually pious ministers and laymen in various 
parts of Germany ; and also by the desire of many of the most distinguished 
divines for a closer union and independent action of the national Churches, 


SUPPLEMENT. 


267 


tended to embrace the whole of the Evangelical Church 
of Germany, but was also present at the meeting of the 

lield under bondage by as many secular governments. But the eminent 
danger of an approaching dissolution of all order in that revolutionary year 
on the one side, and the labours of the Parliament of Frankfurt for a politi- 
cal regeneration of Germany on the basis of unity and constitutional liberty 
on the other, matured this desire, and suggested the plan of a great meeting 
of all the true friends of Christianity, for mutual consultation on the present 
crisis of the country, and for forming a confederation of the Protestant 
Churches, without destroying their distinctive features, or interfering with 
their internal affairs ; in fine, a sort of evangelical defensive and offensive 
alliance against the growing flood of infidelity and destruction.” The 
pastoral conference held at Sandhof, near Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, in June, 
1848, finally issued the general invitation to the first Kirchentag, which met 
on 21st September of that year in Wittenberg — “that venerable town, so 
well known as the cradle of the Beformation, in that very church to whose 
doors its signal, the ninety-five theses, were once affixed, and on the tomb- 
stones of Luther and his friend Melancthon, whose last desire and prayer 
were for the unity of distracted Christendom.” That meeting formed an 
era in the history of German Protestantism. It infused new life into the 
Church, under the influences of which she has been continually since spread- 
ing out her energies on. all sides. Referring to that meeting, T. H. Glad- 
stone, Esq., in an article in the Eclectic Review for 1855, thus speaks : — 
“ The feeling of Christian fellowship was heightened to the sublime, and 
received an expression too deeply affecting ever to be erased from the memory 
of those who witnessed the scene, when, at a solemn moment on the last day, 
the earnest Krummacher, in one of his fervent addresses, pledged the mem- 
bers to stand true to one another in the day of persecution which seemed 
about to burst upon them, and received in the prolonged affirmation of the 
whole assembly the assurance that they would bear each other, as members 
of one family, in their hearts and prayers, would receive each other, in the 
day of persecution to house and home, till the storm should be overpast, and 
would account as their own children the widow and orphans of the brother 
who should seal his testimony by the martyr’s death.” The meetings of the 
Kirchentag were held at first annually, but now biennially in the month of 
September, in some one of the chief towns of Germany. The last of these, 
the 15th, was held in the beginning of September of the present year, 
at Stuttgart. Krummacher was a member from the first of the central 
committee, and always took an active and prominent part in the business 
of the meetings. In connection with the Kirchentag there are also held 
special conferences on matters affecting the social and religious welfare 
of the people. Thus at the Stuttgart Kirchentag there were nine such 
conferences. The fourth day of the Kirchentag is generally devoted to the 
affairs of the “ Inner Mission,” under the presidency of Dr Wichern.— Tr. 


268 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

Evangelical Alliance 1 in London, taking part with those 
Christian men from all lands with whom his writings 
had already long ago united him in a bond of brotherly 
sympathy. Thus it happened that his personal inter- 
course and fellowship with believers, however much in 
heart and mind he was attached to the Church of his 
Fatherland, gave to his activity and to his interest a sort 
of international character, if we may so describe it. Far 
be it from us to venture, from the treasures of our own 
personal recollections, and from the narratives which 
we have heard from his own lips, to continue this his- 
tory where the author himself has laid the pen aside ; 
yet may his own words, as they are found here and 
there expressed in letters and other documents, as well 
as those of some distinguished men and friends, shed 
at least a few rays of light on that period of his life 
in which the Autobiography is defective. Continuing 
the references to the sad scenes of the year 1848, the 
first place in this Supplement is due to the following 
letter from the beloved King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. : — 

“ Sans-Souci, 22c? Avgust 1848. 

“ The beautiful lines which you sent me yesterday, 
dear Mr Krummacher, sound to me like a salutation 
from the delightful Wupperthal and its beloved and 
pious people. At Cologne I witnessed many splendid 
sights, enjoyed myself much, and carried away with me 
ineffaceable impressions. But I bring with me no 
impression so pleasant and indelible, as the fruit of my 
storm-like journey, as that from Elberfeld and Barmen, 
and from the ancient faithful land of Westphalia. 
Tears fill my eyes when I think of it. Would that 

1 The first meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, under the name of the 
“ World’s Convention,” was held in London in 1846. Of the 921 members 
who attended it, 47 were from the Continent, and 87 from North America. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


269 


every one of the inhabitants there knew how deep and 
how great my thanks to them are, both as a man and 
as their king, for that evidence they gave me both of 
the old love still remaining and of their new affection 
for me! You call my journey ‘a quiet but powerful 
victory, full of blessed consequences to the Fatherland/ 
May it be even so ! The victories which we, which our 
times need are of a different sort. They are the victories 
of the Lord — that is what humanity needs, what the 
Church and every soul needs. You, dear Krummacher, 
are an excellent instrument for gaining such conquests ; 
and, praise be to God ! there are now many brave warriors 
fighting the battles of the Gospel. These victories will 
bring deliverance and true peace to the land. My 
thanks to you is the heartfelt wish for your triumphant 
victory. — Auf Wiedersehen ! (till we meet again), 

“ Fbiedbich Wilhelm/' 

How very intimate, and affectionate, and cordial was 
the relation which from year to year he sustained to 
the beloved King, who had already, in the year 1853, 
called him to Potsdam as his court-preacher, will be 
made abundantly apparent from the two following 
letters : — 

“ Potsdam, 27 th Nov. 1853. 

“ That Advent sermon which you preached surpassed 
all I have ever heard. May the Lord of the Church, 
with a thousandfold blessing, make it fruitful ! I have 
the confidence that this blessing, dear Krummacher, 
will not fail to descend upon your head, and also on 
the labours of your ministry, though you may have 
long and patiently to wait for it. ... I have felt in 
a lively way how the fulness of your gifts, and of your 
knowledge, penetrated and influenced by your love for 


270 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

your sacred office, and for the souls of those under your 
pastoral care, have poured themselves forth in your 
discourses. And how beautiful and splendid the form 
in which they have appeared ! . . . Do not let the 

impression made by your Advent sermon at Potsdam 
die with this Sabbath. Multiply it by the press, and 
send to me a hundred copies of it. He who has through 
you begun the good work, will also carry it to a com- 
pletion ! — Yale ! Friedrich Wilhelm.” 

“ Charlottenburg, Christmas Day , 1853. 

“Receive my best thanks, honoured Krummacher, 
for fulfilling my wish in sending me a hundred copies 
of your incomparable Advent sermon. Judge gently of 
the trace of egotism which you see in me, and for which, 
indeed, you are to be blamed along with me. Receive 
the small sum I herewith send you to assist you in 
your charitable labours. No one will spend it in a 
wiser, or nobler, or more Christian way than you will. 
Therefore I hasten to communicate it to you. May 
God uphold and strengthen you in your difficult and 
often thankless labours ! That is my Christmas and 
New Years wish for you ! — Auf Wiedersehen ! 

“ Friedrich Wilhelm.” 

If the beginning of his labours at Potsdam was not 
free from many bitter experiences, and if it required an 
unwearied warfare and effort on his part to make this 
new field entrusted to him fruitful, yet the time he 
spent there in fellowship with the highly honoured 
King, who was of like mind with himself, a genuine 
believer in Christ, and animated by the ideal beauty 
and excellence of Christianity — the hours so spent 
were for him times of light and joy amid the darkness, 


SUPPLEMENT. 


271 


the very remembrance of which, after death had sepa- 
rated them, brought gladness and deep emotions of 
thankfulness into our father’s heart. Particularly the 
remembrance of those precious days spent in the 
journey to the Jubilee Festival of the hundredth anni- 
versary of the incorporation of the circle of Tecklen- 
burg 1 with Prussia, which was celebrated in 1857, 
which it was granted to him to take in the company 
of his royal patron and friend to the old home of 
his fathers, remained as a precious retrospect in his 
mind. The loyalty of the Westphalians to their King 
showed itself on that occasion in the purest and fairest 
blossom. While seated at the festival-table on that 
Jubilee-day, amid the ruins of the old castle of the 
Burgrave of the city of Tecklenburg, a poem com- 
posed by Krummacher was recited by him, in name 
of the Tecklenburgers, as an address of welcome to 
the King, who was deeply moved by it ; and in the 
sight of the whole excited multitude he embraced 
Krummacher in his arms and kissed him. The mem- 
bers of the Evangelical Alliance know very well that 
to this bond of genuine friendship subsisting between 
their beloved King and his court-preacher, the fact of 
its meeting in Berlin in the same year (1857) is due, 
notwithstanding the strenuous* opposition the proposal 
had to encounter on the part of those who were hostile 
to the Alliance. And however much Berlin, in the 
matter of external hospitality, came behind the other 
cities in which the Alliance had met, yet the King 
honoured it so far as to extend to all its members a 
hearty and heart- winning welcome at the new palace 
at Potsdam, to which he had invited them at the 
suggestion of the wife of his court-preacher, who was 
1 A circle in the province of Westphalia. 


272 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


always ready with practical counsels. Besides this, he 
took a warm and lively interest in the course of its 
proceedings, giving thereby such a charm to those 
bright days that, however much the guests attending 
the meeting at Amsterdam were delighted with the 
surpassing hospitality of the Dutch, yet we feel our- 
selves entitled to say that the meeting of the Alliance 
at Berlin is worthy of taking rank, in point of import- 
ance, with those held in the cities of London, Paris, and 
Geneva . 1 How he whose portrait we are here contem- 
plating stood related to the Evangelical Alliance, which 
is so greatly misunderstood in Germany, because almost 
wholly unknown, he perhaps never expressed in a clearer 
or more splendid manner than in the opening address 
at the Berlin meeting, which we think worthy of being 
here again presented to our readers. 

Opening Address on the first day of the Meeting of 
the Evangelical Alliance of Christians from all 
lands , held at Berlin , by Dr Krummacher, 
Court - Preacher . 

Welcome, Reverend Sirs, Dear Brethren, from east 
and west, from north and south, under the protecting 
wings of the Prussian Eagle, and to the hospitable 
bosom of the State which for centuries has borne the 
name of a refuge for the Church of Jesus Christ, and 
which has had at heart, as no other State has, from 
times of old till now, the union of all true believers ! 
Welcome in the light of the favour and friendship 
of Him whom the royal singer thus praises : “ How 

1 The first meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, under the name of the 
“ World’s Convention,” was held, as already mentioned, in London in August 
1846, the second was also heid in London in 1851, the third at Paris in 1855, 
the fourth at Berlin, as above referred to, the fifth at Geneva in 1861, and 
the sixth at Amsterdam in 1867 . — Tr. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


273 


excellent is Thy loving-kindness, 0 God ! therefore the 
children of men put their trust under the shadow of 
Thy wings ! ” Behold to-day a beautiful image of the 
union which yet awaits us before the throne of the 
living God ! Never before has such a scene as this 
been witnessed on German ground. Happy, blessed 
days have we already enjoyed at our Kirchentags ; but 
then such men of God as Bunyan the Baptist, who 
pointed for us the way to heaven — those leaders of 
the Methodists, Wesley and Whitfield, who blew the 
trumpet of a spiritual alarm at a time when the Church, 
far and wide, was a mausoleum, a house of the dead 
— men such as Chalmers, the witness with the tongue 
of fire, the founder of the Free Church of Scotland, 
and many of a like stamp : these then stood without 
the circle of the assembled brethren, and had only 
to look on from a distance. To-day they are in our 
midst. The barriers of centuries have given way. 
The brotherly love which springs from God has 
shattered in pieces the rusty chains. A portion of 
the communion of the saints has become visible. 
Above the denominational hereditary banners of the 
Churches, there waves the royal standard of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, with the inscription, “ One Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” And 
that word of the ancient psalm has asserted its truth : 
“ And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was 
born in her ; and the Highest Himself shall establish 
her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the 
people, that this man was born there. As well the 
singers as the players on instruments shall be there : 
all my springs are in thee.” 1 

And not without a struggle have we reached the 
1 Ps. lxxxvii. 5-7. 


274 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


point at which we this day joyfully greet one another. 
Our opponents who have disquieted us are, however, 
not all to be ranked in one class. We know how to 
distinguish between those who unintelligently echo the 
word of command, and those who have given the word. 
With deep sorrow have we seen among the latter class 
men of celebrity in the kingdom of God ; men worthy 
of esteem, with whom for tens of years we have stood, 
foot by foot, and heart with heart, in the holy war 
against the anti-Christian powers of the time ; yea, men 
whom we have held, and will ever hold, high in honour 
as leaders in the battles of the Lord. It is true they 
have at least by their silence withdrawn many of the 
charges they at first made against us, but we do not 
as yet enjoy their presence amongst us. Unfavour- 
ably and from a distance they contemplate our meeting. 
Why? I will not now, my dear friends, return to the old 
accusations that have ceased to be made against us. 
Those which have most recently been advanced are, 
first, that our assembly has no inward truthfulness ; 
second, that it is not in accordance with the times , and 
is not adapted to the necessities of the German Evan- 
gelical Christians ; and finally, that it is destitute of all 
fixed, clearly understood , and direct practical aims. 

We cannot shrink, my dear friends, from an earnest 
examination of these accusations, though they seem to 
stand to each other, to a certain extent, in a contra- 
dictory relation. This examination is the method by 
which the functions devolving on this great and sig- 
nificant assembly will most clearly and distinctly be 
brought out to view. 

I. They say that our Assembly has only the appear- 
ance of a brotherly union , but by no means the reality, 


SUPPLEMENT. 


275 


and that it also wants inward truth, since each 
member of it maintains his own particular Church 
relations, and the old boundaries remain as before. 

This is strange ! Once they accused us with the 
intention of breaking up the old Church boundaries, 
and with attempting a union and fusion of the different 
Church confessions and organisms, and now they accuse 
us with the very opposite. What is then, in truth, the 
state of the case ? Certain it is that no injury has 
been done to the Church boundaries. I remain faithful 
to my own native Church, faithful to her symbols, faith- 
ful to her form of worship, faithful to her constitution, 
faithful to her arrangements, usages, customs. I love 
my mother Church as the spiritual mother which bore 
me into a new life by the Word, which nourished me 
at her breasts, and which daily supports, strengthens, 
and refreshes me with the treasures of health and of 
grace. I hold high her banner, and will continue to 
hold it till this hand falls down powerless, and will 
praise her till this mouth is silent in death. I 
consider that my beloved German Church rests in 
the sunshine of promise and of hope not less than any 
other ; and from my heart I wish her well, and seek 
her prosperity and her progress both outwardly and 
inwardly ; and as I stand toward my Church, so every 
one in this assembly stands towards his. But we all 
know that the limits of the kingdom of God stretch far 
beyond the temporary enclosures of particular Churches, 
and that those things which unite us together are 
much more essential than those which separate and 
keep us apart from each other. • 

We are all subject to the authority of the Holy 
Scriptures as the infallible divine revelation given us 
from heaven ; and we believe that no other, whether it 


276 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


be called Reason or Tradition, Hierarchy, Church, or by 
whatever other name it may be known, stands above it. 
We all unite in prayer to the living God, the one God in 
Three Persons, as He makes Himself known to us in 
His Word, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; the 
only-begotten Son, who before the foundation of the 
world dwelt personally in the bosom of the Father ; and 
the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the 
Son. We all acknowledge ourselves to be by nature 
lost, unfitted to do anything truly good, prone to all 
evil, without wisdom, without consolation, helpless in 
ourselves, and dependent on the free grace and mercy 
of God alone. But we also comfort ourselves with the 
joyful assurance that this grace has appeared in Jesus 
Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh; and in His 
mediatorial work we see the only but the all-sufficient 
and superabundant cause of our salvation and of our 
everlasting happiness. We take hold of Christ by 
faith ; we do Him honour ; with body and soul we give 
ourselves to Him ; and thus we conclude that, though 
we are sinful, miserable, and guilty in ourselves, we 
stand justified before the Judge of the living and the 
dead, not on account of our faith as a virtue, much less 
on account of our good works, but solely for the sake of 
the righteousness of the Great Surety, which is reckoned 
as grace to those who have faith in Him who justifies 
the ungodly. On account of the merits of Jesus, the 
Holy Ghost declares us in our conscience free from sin, 
gives witness with our spirit that we are the children 
of God, fills us with that peace which passeth all under- 
standing, and sets forth in us that work of sanctification 
as He has already begun it. 

But we know that the Holy Spirit carries on His 
work only in the method ordained by God ; therefore, 


SUPPLEMENT. 


277 


while He comes with the Word, we press the Bible 
ardently to our hearts, and hold it to be our inalienable 
right, as well as our most sacred duty, to deal constantly 
and daily and directly with this written treasure. We 
honour the Church, that wonderful building which 
God has erected in the world, the dwelling-place of the 
Holy Ghost, in which by means of the grace and help 
imparted to the members, He builds up, supplies with 
power, fashions and completes, the body of Jesus Christ. 
We hold in high esteem the sacred office of the preacher 
which was founded and ordained by the Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself, to make a path for the Spirit into the 
world, to make a way for His entrance into the heart. 
With solemn and reverential awe we consecrate the 
Sacraments, these holy ordinances of our God, which 
not only witness our personal union with the whole 
body of Christ, but also seal it, yea, which mediately 
convey it. We count ourselves blessed in the posses- 
sion of all these means of grace ; but we all unite in 
the common confession, that in the use of them we are 
guilty of thousandfold unfaithfulness, and daily in our 
life we find cause with penitent spirit to renew our 
prayer for grace and mercy. Yet we know “ it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that 
when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we 
shall see Him as He is.” We comfort ourselves with 
the certain prospect of a life after death, when, trans- 
formed in body and soul into the likeness of the fairest 
of the sons of men, we shall eternally praise and adore 
the works of God. Blessed in the possession of this 
hope, and moved by the same interests and borne along 
by the same grace, though some of us are separated 
from • each other in body by land and sea, we meet 
together as children of one household, as fellow-heirs 


278 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

of one future inheritance, daily and hourly before the 
face of our common Lord and Master. 

Behold, then, the deep living foundation on which 
our fellowship rests, and in which our brotherhood is 
rooted ! Is it not truly so ? And yet, forsooth, our 
Assembly must be spoken of as having only the 
appearance of a brotherly union, and not the reality 
and essence of it ! Oh ! how much more reality this 
our union has, not only than that mechanical Church 
unity which displays itself only as the artificial pro- 
duction of a lordly, priestly despotism, but also than 
any community which has for its foundation of union 
only the lip confession, even though it be true, adopted 
literally by its members, or a uniformity of outward 
Church forms and usages ! Here with us there is, as 
we hope, a living union of the members with Christ 
the Head ; here the fusing of hearts with the heart of 
the great heavenly Friend of sinners ; here we are 
drawn together in the love of Him who first loved us 
even to the death, and with a brothers love ! Now 
it is our duty not only to affirm this, but also, as at 
all times so now, during the days of our joyful 
assembling together, practically to manifest it. And" 
here we have to deal with the first problem, the solu- 
tion of which devolves upon us in these days. May 
all who looked upon our Assembly with mistrust be 
unable, on breathing its atmosphere, to repress such a 
feeling as that which once forced the cry of astonish- 
ment from the heathen, as they beheld the first Chris- 
tians : “ Behold, how they love one another!” May 
they be convinced that we do not love one another at 
the expense of truth, or by denying it, but rather 
because of the blessed truths of God, in which we all 
stand by one another ! May such a deep impression 


SUPPLEMENT. 


279 


of these truths be made upon us, that nothing else may 
lie upon our hearts than the honour of the name of 
our God, and the coming of His kingdom, and that no 
party human interests of any kind may lead us astray 
or disunite us ! In particular, may you feel with 
growing strength of conviction that the arms of our 
brotherly love are wide enough to embrace in our 
hearts, with warm inward affection, and without 
hypocrisy, as well as without any remnant of a root 
of bitterness, those also who have opposed us, and 
have shown us the cold hand, but who nevertheless 
bow the knee to the same Lord, whom we also adore. 
May God grant that a problem so beautiful, and affect- 
ing so greatly the honour of the Lord, may find among 
us, and through us, in these days, a solution which shall 
be pleasing in the sight of God! 

II. It is further -objected to our Assembly that it 
is not in accordance with the times , nor with the wants 
of German Evangelical Christians . 

This objection is so little applicable, that it rather 
reacts upon those who have raised it, and who have 
attributed to the Assembly intentions which are alto- 
gether and wholly foreign to it. On the contrary, I 
affirm that the Assembly is suitable to the present 
times, and also adapted to the wants of the German 
Christian people, and I have no difficulty in establish- 
ing my affirmation. For what is suitable to the times, 
if not a testimony of lively experience from the mouths 
of many witnesses, distinctly uttered and proclaimed 
as if from the house-tops, that Jesus Christ is the Lord, 
and that in Him the salvation and happiness of the 
World for time and for eternity is alone to be found ? 
What is suitable to the time if not the united prayers 


280 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

of all believers for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
over the Church, which has in part become a wilder- 
ness, and over a generation buried in indifferentism and 
sunk in materialism ? What, if not an inward union of 
all true confessors of the Gospel in the common warfare 
against the destructive powers of unbelief and of false 
belief, of anti-Christianity as well as of pseudo- Chris- 
tianity, which in our days raise their heads with so 
much confidence of victory? What, if not a lively 
exhibition in fact of the essential unity of the Evan- 
gelical Church in opposition to the shouts of triumph 
of its enemies, who in the divisions of the Church, and 
in its party hatreds, imagine that they see its last 
death-struggle, and the sure symptoms of its speedy 
destruction? 

And what, beloved friends, corresponds better to the 
necessities of our Ger man Evangelical Christian people 
than an unmistakable evidence that the continual quar- 
relling of the theological schools and parties, with which 
we have been long ago satiated and weary, are in the 
act of disappearing before that union for which Christ, 
in His intercession as High Priest, prayed ? What is 
better adapted to the requirements of the times than the 
perception of the hopelessness of the endeavour to resus- 
citate the religion of a century stiffened in scholastic 
forms, and happily borne to the grave through the 
pectoral and living theology of a Spener, an Arndt, 
and a Franke — a century in which a marriage between 
a Lutheran and one of the Eeformed Church was placed 
under the ban of the Church as a (< mixed” marriage, 
and the Communion, in violent contrast to its name and 
intention, was raised as a rugged wall of separation 
between Protestant husbands and wives, brothers and 
sisters and friends ? What better corresponds to the 


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281 


necessities of our dear German Christian people than 
in these days in which the unheard of phenomenon 
has appeared of Protestants complaining of the work 
of God which was wrought through Luther, Melanc- 
thon, Calvin, and Knox, as a misfortune, or even 
condemning it as an act of rebellion, the appearance 
of an armed band of watchmen on the walls of Zion, 
who have bound themselves firmly together in a kind 
of brotherhood for the protection of the fundamental 
principles of our holy reformation ? What is more 
needed than a practical strong evidence that an 
energetic and triumphant reaction exists against the 
smuggling in of a mediatory human priesthood into the 
Protestant Church, against the renewed attempt to 
promulgate the doctrine of the opus operatum — the 
conditioning of holiness on church services — and against 
the endeavour to change the Church founded on the 
Word into a so-called Sacramental Church ? It is after 
signs, views, and securities of this kind that German 
Protestant Christians, deeply moved by manifold mis- 
givings, are in our days ardently longing, and our 
Assembly expects to be able to supply them. Does it 
not therefore correspond to the necessities of the times 
and the requirements of the German Christian people ? 

Truly, if the Assembly had undertaken to destroy 
our Confession of Faith, and to establish a union 
without principles ; to weaken the authority of the 
existing Church, or to break her off from her historical 
associations in which she rests ; to introduce amongst 
us foreign customs, to Anglicanize, Americanize, or 
Frenchify the German Church ; then would the reproach 
be justly brought against it, that it is neither in con- 
formity to the times, nor has any harmony with the 
divinely directed development of our German Chris- 
's 


282 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


tianity, and it would be as wholly out of place in 
Germany as its proceedings would be without results. 

Let there be by the grace of God a spiritual inter- 
change of gifts ! Ye French, give us of your fiery zeal 
in the service of the Lord ; ye brethren from Italy, 
of your martyr spirit and your joy in death for the 
name of Christ ; ye Britons, of your apostolic activity 
and your Christian world-conquering spirit ; ye Scotch- 
men, of the completeness of your faith and your moral 
and Christian earnestness ; ye Americans, of your rever- 
ence for the inspired letter of the living Word of God ; 
ye Dutchmen, of your moderation when thousands 
reeled under spiritual intoxication ! Give us, ye 
Methodists, of your glowing zeal for the conversion of 
individual souls ; ye Independents, of your joyful self- 
sacrifices for the interests of your congregations ; ye 
Baptists, of your church discipline and your congrega- 
tional order ; ye Anglicans, of your reverence and 
love for the Church which nourished you at her breasts ; 
ye members of the Moravian Church, of your wide 
heartedness, whereby ye recognise every one in whom 
a reflection of the image of Christ is to be seen ! Yea, 
give us each what you have, and we will thank both God 
and you for the gift. 

But whoever among you can only think of the per- 
fected Church as independent, of the true Church only 
as separated from the State, and entirely free ; of 
church government only as Episcopal or as Pres- 
byterian ; of the service of public worship as only 
puritanical reformed ; of religious freedom as unre- 
strained and unlimited : let each keep to himself his 
own ideal ! These are not the questions which are to 
be discussed and decided on here. They would carry 
war into our camp, and bring self-destruction upon the 


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283 


Assembly. If there is any one, moreover, who thinks 
that he ought especially to take up a position against 
those of our German brethren who seek above all 
things to enforce again upon the congregations the 
Church Confessions, and to raise and strengthen the 
influence of the Church and of the clerical office, let 
him remember that he is not in England, nor in Scot- 
land, nor in Sweden, where in general the fundamental 
truths of the Gospel still hold a firm place in the con- 
sciences of the people, and where perhaps it may be 
suitable to the times to lay greater stress upon love 
and upon the living activity of faith than upon the 
faith itself ; but in Germany where the strong seeds of 
rationalism have even to this hour overspread such an 
immense extent of the field of the Church — in Germany 
where the danger of boasting of and trusting in a dead 
church orthodoxy is, from the people at least, as yet 
far distant — in Germany where in wide regions the 
ignorance of the people of religious things is scarcely 
less than that of the heathen — in Germany where one 
may meet with congregations here and there in which 
for years past the Lords Supper has not been 
administered, because no one has been willing to par- 
take of it — in Germany where even the Prussian 
church authorities, in spite of their stringent rule, have 
not succeeded in freeing the Church and the school from 
the evil of false teaching ; and where, above all things, 
it is the first duty to lay anew the foundations whereon 
may be raised the overturned lamp of the pure and 
true doctrine, and to build up the knowledge of the 
truth. 

Now, my friends, consider what is the second problem 
which is given us, the solution of which now lies upon 
us. I shall state it in few words. It is respect for the 


284 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


peculiarities of different Churches ; for their historical 
position, their guidance, their special call, their cir- 
cumstances and relations ; an unrestrained recognition 
of the good, the noble, the pious, and the true every- 
where, even if it meets us in the efforts of those who 
may appear to us to be in part in error ; it is war 
against the unevangelical and the Romanizing tenden- 
cies, not by removing the Confession of the Reformers, 
hut by standing upon their ground, and fighting with 
their weapons, so that our victory may he certain ; it 
is a careful avoidance of even the remotest appearance 
of our advocating a love which is as unlike Christian 
charity as the spirit of an insipid philanthropy is to 
the Holy Spirit ; it is an unambiguous declaration that 
we have not met here for the purpose of increasing the 
parties in the Church by adding a new one, but rather 
of bringing together into union all those who, as fellow- 
heirs of eternal glory, meet together at the throne of 
the Lamb. Oh may these things not be lost sight of 
by our Assembly, and may both friends and enemies be 
compelled at last to the acknowledgment that this 
Assembly has busied itself with all earnestness to follow 
the wisdom which is from above, and of which James 
says, that it is “ First pure, then peaceable, gentle, 
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, 
without partiality, and without hypocrisy ! ” May God 
grant that this problem also be fully solved! 

III. In the last place, it is openly and repeatedly' 
objected to our Assembly that we do not know what 
we want, and have no definite , clearly -determined, and 
immediately practical aim. We will not put our ac- 
cusers to the disadvantage of asking them the simple 
question, why, if they really entertain such an opinion, 


SUPPLEMENT. 


285 


they have put themselves into such violent hostility 
against so meaningless and useless an Assembly as ours 
is ? They say our meeting will have no results, but 
flow away like water. Yes ; but we do hope that it 
will flow away like the water of the Nile, which leaves 
behind it not destruction, but only rich fruitfulness, and 
as it ebbs away from the inhabitants on its banks, 
whom its floods have perhaps terrified, is followed back 
to its bed with hymns of praise and thanks. If our 
Assembly will really have shown that the kingdom of 
God extends far beyond the boundaries of each parti- 
cular country, and of the Confession of each particular 
Church, and that the healing again of the broken 
peace of the Church, ardently longed for by thousands 
of the widely-scattered followers of Christ, lies no 
longer only in the region of the possible, but has been 
realized as an accomplished fact ; if, in consequence of 
the attainment of this result, hope is again revived in 
the faint-hearted, if new joy strengthens the despond- 
ing to build up the walls of Zion, and a spirit of mild- 
ness and temperance finds place in those who are eager 
for a particular ecclesiastical form, and the heart enlarges 
itself in all respects along with the extension of the 
circle of ecclesiastical vision — then by such results will 
not a beautiful, great, practical purpose be attained ? 
And if the members of the Assembly take away with 
them the consciousness, as the spiritual gain of this 
meeting, that nothing is more necessary for the con- 
quest of the world than the gathering closely together 
of all the faithful around the standard which bears on 
it this inscription, “ Christ is all and in all;” nothing so 
much as an ever-repeated, diligent study of the Word 
of God, a reproduction of ecclesiastical confessions 
out of that Word, and a united, strong, joyful activity 


286 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


for the planting of a new life more through the 
agency of men fitted and ruled by the Holy Spirit 
than through letters and forms — if, besides this con- 
sciousness, the brotherly communications, yea, the very 
presence together of brethren from all lands, im- 
presses the conviction that the Lord, with His Spirit 
and His gifts, yet acts on the plan of preparing 
everywhere the living stones for the completion of the 
building of His temple, and that the labours of His ser- 
vants in this work is well-pleasing to Him — Oh then, say, 
will any one doubt but that our Assembly has had a 
beautiful, real, practical result ? Let us not, however, 
disregard the reproach that we have no practical tenden- 
cies, and let us feel that our third and last problem in 
these days is this — not to appear as doctrinaires and 
idealists, but to fasten our eyes attentively on the 
necessities and wants of actual life, and earnestly to 
take counsel with each other as to the means for their 
redress, and to act as brethren in the adoption of manly 
and vigorous resolutions. 

In all Christian lands there is yet a great portion 
of the people, even in Protestant lands, to whom the 
sound of the Gospel has scarcely ever come. How 
can a way of entrance be opened up for the Lord 
Christ ? Before the door of our Evangelical Church 
crowds of Homan Catholic priests stand and knock. 
How shall we prepare for them a field of operation and 
subsistence, and prepare them for their entry among 
us ? A number of small Evangelical congregations 
languish in the Diaspora , 1 in the midst of Ihe isolation 
and persecution which they have to endure. How 
may we succour, comfort, establish, and strengthen 
what will otherwise languish and die ? Excellent 

1 AixaTTopoc, — dispersion. 


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287 


undertakings, missionary and literary (I name among 
the latter the publication of the lives and writings of 
the Fathers of the Evangelical Church), 1 threaten to 
be put a stop to for the want of means for carrying 
them on. Will it not befit us to help to carry forward 
such works ? Our people are daily more and more 
poisoned by a light literature, which, like a flood, rolls 
its desolating waves over town and country. Might 
we not begin to lead the poor deluded people into a 
better and more wholesome pasture ? 

Consider these few questions, which I could very 
easily multiply. They point out to us a wide field for 
action, for practical undertakings;' and for the imme- 
diate putting forth of help. Let us survey this field, 
dear brethren, if only to disprove this last accusation 
that has been raised against us, and let us be truly 
practical during these pleasant days of our conference ! 

I now conclude, and declare herewith the Assembly 
of Evangelical Christians from all lands to be opened. 
I only add the remark, that the fundamental principles 
on which this Assembly will continue to convene are 
absolutely excluded from discussion, inasmuch as they 
are regarded as already fixed. I cannot leave the 
place I now occupy without bowing in the dust in 
deepest humility, and, at the same time, in the name 
of you all, with joyful child-like confidence, entreating 
the Saviour himself, our adorable Lord and Master 
Jesus Christ, that He would preside over our assembly. 
May He condescend to look in love upon us, may He 
crown our conference with His favours as with a shield, 
may He so help us that we may be able to say, as was 
once said of the Temple of Jerusalem, “ The glory of 

1 “ Leben und ausgewahlte Schriften der Vater und Begriinder der refor- 
mirten und der lutlierischen Kirche.” Elberfeld. 


288 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

the Lord filled the house ; ” and may He grant that, at 
the close of our proceedings, thousands of the people, 
either anew or for the first time, may fall down in 
homage at His feet ! That is what we desire, long for, 
pray for, and to that end may He, the Eternal One, 
speak His all-conquering, efficacious Amen ! 1 


Krummacher continued with his whole heart to be 
warmly attached to the Evangelical Alliance to the end 
of his days. He took a deep interest in its meetings, 
from none of which he was ever absent. He saw in it 
a blessed foreshadowing of the time when there will 
be one Shepherd and one sheepfold, into which the 
scattered divisions of the Church shall all be gathered 
— a time for which his heart ardently longed. He 


1 Comparing this meeting of the Alliance with that afterwards held at 
Geneva in 1861, Dr Cairns, of Berwick, says : — “ In one point they strikingly 
resemble each other, the one meeting recalling Frederick the Great and 
Voltaire as much as the other recalled Voltaire and Rousseau. There was 
not, however, any symbol of victory at Geneva equal to the reception of the 
Alliance in the palace of Frederick at Potsdam, by the late amiable and 
pious King of Prussia ; and that extraordinary scene is likely to remain 
without parallel. In Berlin, too, the struggle had reached a more advanced 
stage, and the Alliance had to fight its way into the city, not as at Geneva 
against the Rationalist, but against the High Church formalist, who stands 
at the second remove from Voltairian scepticism. The whole impression 
of the Berlin conference was different from that of Geneva, being modified 
by the nature of the opposition it had to encounter. It was substantially 
a protest against a narrow and bigoted Confessionalism, which puts a clergy- 
church, Popish or Lutheran, in place of the Bible and the universal priest- 
hood of Christians ; and the chief good it effected was in that direction. It 
undoubtedly helped, and that in no small degree, the downfall of the Stahl- 
Hengstenberg party, and the extrication of the Kirchentag from their influ- 
ence, and the liberal career of the present Prussian ecclesiastical adminis- 
tration, of which the best fruit is the institution of lay eldership in the 
eastern provinces. This impulse to ecclesiastical liberalism is probably the 
best result of the Berlin Conference .” — Proceedings of the Geneva Conference , 
p. xii. — T r. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


289 


was at the same time also not the less truly attached 
to the Kirchentag, and recognised in it an adaptation 
eminently seasonable and corresponding to the require- 
ments and the special interests of the German Evan- 
gelical Church, and he would certainly have been one 
of the first to protest against any attempt to merge 
the Kirchentag into the Evangelical Alliance. But it 
was especially the fact that the latter, as well as the 
former, embodied a representation of the pure alliance 
of oneness in Christ Jesus, which made these Church 
Confederations so precious and dear to him, and nothing 
grieved him more, nothing made the pilgrimage of 
earth more wearisome to him, than when, as, alas ! was 
the case at several meetings of the Kirchentag, doc- 
trinal controversies were introduced, and instead of the 
spirit of love, threatened to awaken party hatred and 
strife. When it was necessary for him to wield the 
sword of the Spirit against the assaults of anti- Christi- 
anity, he was a Paul, full of fiery zeal and always ready 
for war, but yet, at the same time, in the innermost 
feelings of his soul, he was more a John , habitually 
breathing the entreaty : “ Little children, love one 
another.” That this was the case, is witnessed by the 
three questions which he proposed at the first meeting 
of the Kirchentag, held at Wittenberg in the year 1848, 
and which we here insert from the record of the pro- 
ceedings. 

“ Wittenberg, 23 d September 1848. 

“ Dr Krummacher, of Berlin, proposed to the meet- 
ing the following motion : — 

“ ‘ The idea of the Evangelical Church Alliance, which 
is to be established, has been hailed by all with delight ; 
its form stands out clearly before us. But we must for 
ourselves carry home with us something real, some 


290 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HR KRUMMACHER. 

enduring treasure. This would be the case if the 
Assembly would answer by a unanimous Ja (yes) to 
these three questions which, in the name of many, I now 
propose. 

“ ‘ (1.) Have we here found ourselves to be such as 
those who can with Peter confess, “ We believe and are 
sure that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God ;” 
and “ Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words 
of eternal life.” And has a great heart-alliance in Christ 
Jesus, our only Saviour, been concluded by us with one 
another during these days ? 

“ ‘ (2.) Will we abide steadfast in the spirit which, by 
the grace of God, has ruled in our Assembly, loving one 
another, bearing one another in our hearts, remember- 
ing one another in prayer, striving with one another 
only for the blessed and infallible cause of the Gospel, 
and defending one another on the great field of conflict 
whereon we stand ? 

“ c (3.) Shall we all henceforth in our hearts regard 
ourselves as kindred in the Lord, as members of one 
family ; and may we look upon the register of the names 
of those who have been here assembled during these 
days as the record of a family full of mutual affection 
and love, so that when the persecution presses hard the 
desponding may, during the storm that is about to 
break forth, be sure to find food and shelter with their 
brethren till it shall pass over us ; and those who fall 
on the field of conflict, dying a martyr death, may, as 
they look upon wife and children, say to all, “ These are 
your sisters, these are your children.” 1 

“‘A Ja spoken out in the presence of the Almighty, 
that would be a treasure, a costly jewel which we would 
carry away with us from this assembly. 5 ” 

1 See Note, p. 267. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


291 


In response to these questions the whole meeting 
rose up, and uttered a loud and solemn Ja. The hymn 
was then sung : — 

“ All we who here together meet, 

United with one hand and heart, 

Cast ourselves at Jesus’ feet 
And nothing shall us ever part. 

Yes, we love and trust each other, 

All bound together, Lord, in Thee : 

Bless the compact, Elder Brother, 

And say Amen, So let it be!” (*) 

How many of those who were present at the above- 
mentioned meeting of the Evangelical Alliance now 
unite their voices with his in the courts of the sanctuary 
above, around, the throne of the Lamb, in singing the 
eternal hallelujah! — men whose names will always shine 
like stars in the firmament of the Christian world ! Of 
these we make mention of Sir Culling Eardley, of whom 
his German friend Krummacher thus wrote after the 
death of the distinguished, amiable, and truly womanly 
Lady Eardley : “ Sir Culling has now lost his faithful 
charioteer, and it will henceforth be very difficult for 
him to restrain so well his fiery ideas.” John Hender- 
son, of Glasgow, who joyfully laid all his riches at the 
feet of his Lord ; Ridley Herschel, the Israelite without 
guile; Louis Meyer, the faithful French witness for the 
truth, with a true German heart beating in his bosom ; 
Frederick Monod, Adolfs honoured brother ; the 

1 “ Die wir uns allhier beisammen finden 
Schlagen unsre Hande ein, 

Uns auf Jesu Marter zu verbinden, 

Dir auf ewig treu zu sein. 

Und zum Zeichen dass dies Lobgetone 
Deinem Herzen angenebm und schone 
Sage Amen und zugleich : 

Eriede, Friede sei mit eucb ! ” 


292 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


unwearied missionary to the Berlin heathen, Edward 
Kuntze; and Bunsen, the Bunsen who, as the editor of 
his splendid “ Gesang und Gebetbuch” (Hymn and 
Prayer Book), belonged to the Evangelical Alliance. 

Of the members of the Kirchentag who have now 
passed away to the Assembly above, we here name only 
Stahl, and Nitzsch, and Sander to whom, as his fellow 
pi] grim to the heavenly Jerusalem, he erected an endur- 
ing monument in the Biography 1 which he published. 
In the beginning of the year 1859, the year in which 
death rent asunder the bond of pure and hallowed 
friendship that had so long united them together, 
Sander wrote in the following words to his beloved 
“ Brother Krummacher — “ It is always to me a festi- 
val day, which I have constantly celebrated, when your 
birth-day comes round. The goodness of the Lord 
which has encircled you stands then anew before my 
sight, and I rejoice again with renewed gladness that 
the Lord has united me in friendship with you. For a 
longtime now (since 1825) the Lord has permitted us to 
walk together as fellow-pilgrims, and has granted to us 
the privilege of strengthening each other in this desert 
land. — Yet not wholly a desert, for now and then we 
meet with beautiful and lovely valleys. We have been 
able, also, at times to rest together under the peaceful 
shadow, and in sympathy with each other to look 
forward to the blessed land beyond the wilderness, and 
upwards to the throne of the Lord. What should 
hinder us from obtaining in answer to our prayers that 
our view of the heavenly world should never be dimmed 
by the mists and the darkness of this world.” 

And though this truly was never the case, yet the 
loss of his tried and trusted friend, Sander, only 

1 See page 151. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


293 


increased the sadness which had already oppressed his 
mind on account of the illness of the beloved King 1 2 
— a sadness which made his very heart to tremble 
as with the premonitions of death. On the 7th of 
June 1858, he wrote to his brothers in these words : — 
“ I have at present not much more to say to you 
except that, preaching and living, I am busied making 
preparations for my last great journey, for which my 
God grant me grace. The more this is the case, so 
much the more earnestly would I say with the aged 
Apostle John, £ Little children, love one another ; 9 
with Paul, e Be ye kind one to another, tender- 
hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for 
Christ's sake hath forgiven you ; 9 2 with Gerhard 
Tersteegen : 

1 Away with wrath and angry strife ! 

Seek peace, and enter into life ; 

As children from the path ne’er roam, 

That leads you to your Father’s home ; ’ 

and with Claudius : ‘ Variances arise only because we 
do not understand one another.' " It was at this time 
that he preached his sermon on the Christian Pilgrim- 
age 3 * to the heavenly home. He was not yet so near 
to the haven of eternal rest as he then thought himself 
to be, but was spared a little longer, to the praise of 
God, to be a blessing to his own congregation, and to the 
whole Evangelical Church. “ Thou hast yet commis- 

1 Shortly after the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance (in October, 1857), 
the health of the King became seriously affected, occasioned, as was sup- 
posed, by the extraordinary exertions he had made, and the excitement con- 
nected with the meeting. Fears were entertained that he had sustained 
permanent mental injury. He never completely recovered— T r. 

2 Ephes. iv. 32. 

3 Published in 1858, under the title of “ Des Christen Wallfahrt nach der 

himmlischen Heimath.” Berlin. 


294 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

sions of many kinds entrusted to thee which thou must 
discharge,” wrote Sander at the close of the letter 
above referred to, and so it was. Much blessed work 
he had yet to perform in the service of his Lord. 
Among others, he had to give expansion to the 
“ Evangelical Union,” which he had established shortly 
after his entrance on his new sphere of labour at Pots- 
dam. In the small, dimly-lighted chamber, the only 
one at his command, in which its meetings were at first 
held, he had frequently the joy of seeing the beloved 
King Friedrich Wilhelm iv. among the audience. Of 
the many addresses which he delivered at these meet- 
ings on various subjects belonging to the departments 
of ecclesiastical affairs, or of church history, which he 
presented in a very interesting, scientific, and artistic 
form, we here make mention only of that on “ John 
Knox and Queen Mary ” 1 — an address which made a 
very deep impression far beyond the limits of Potsdam. 
Of a like kind, also, though necessarily conditioned by 
the character of his audience, were the lectures he 
delivered at the so-called “ Military Association,” a 
scientific society founded by the officers of the garrison, 
for the purpose of affording them an opportunity of 
applying their genuine Prussian culture, and exten- 
sive knowledge in certain departments of learning, in 
the delivery of addresses not only on purely military 
subjects, but also on subjects of general history, for the 
instruction and entertainment of their companions. 
With what remarkable tact their clerical associate, the 
Hofprediger Krummacher, adapted his addresses to 
this peculiar circle of hearers, is evidenced in the sub- 
jects which he chose. They were such as these, “ the 

1 Published as a separate lecture, under the title, “Johann Knox und 
Konigin Marie.” Berlin. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


295 


Eye 1 of Frederick the Great “the Military Profession 
in the light of the Holy Scriptures ; ” “ the Three 
Patron Saints of the Military Order — St George, St 
Maurice, and St Sebastian ; ” “a Comparison of 
Kings ; ” 2 and many others of a like kind, which 
all at length found their way into the military 
“ Zeitung ” (journal). Regarding one of these ad- 
dresses, a military scion of our royal house wrote to 
him in these words : — “ You have recently delivered 
an address before the Military Association of this place, 
which has made a deep impression on the minds of all 
who heard it, and has created in me the desire of be- 
coming better acquainted with the subject discussed. 
Is it possible for you to reproduce it in print in all the 
freshness and originality with which it was delivered ? ” 

He was very far, however, from frittering away his 
time in the delivering of lectures and addresses on sub- 
jects of minor importance. He regarded the quietness 
and retirement of Potsdam, into which the will of the 
Lord had brought him from his active and stirring life 
in Berlin, as a period granted to him for studying with 
greater earnestness the deep things of God, and we 
owe directly to this space of fifteen years a considerable 
number of his larger works. At the commencement of 
his residence in Potsdam, he resumed the publication, 
which had before that been commenced, of a series 
of sermons under the title of “The Sabbath-bell 3 

1 That is, his spiritual eye — his royal vigilance and prompt continued and 
correct insight into what was wrong and what was right. The expression 
reminds of the proverb, “ The eye of the master fatteth the cattle.” — Tr. 

2 “ Eine Konigsparallele, vorgetragen in der militarischen Gesellschaft 
zu Potsdam am 5 Nov. 1860,” published in the “Neue Evangelische Kir- 
chenzeitung,” 19th Jan. 1861. It is a comparison between David, the King 
of Israel, and Friedrich Wilhelm iv., the King of Prussia. — Tr. 

3 “ Die Sabbathglocke. Kirchliche Zeugnisse, von Dr F. W. Krummacher. 
Zwolf Bande.” Berlin. 


296 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


and in the year 1854 he published “The Suffering 
Saviour/’ 1 as a sequel to the “ Advent Book ; ” 2 
and in the year 1862, that he might complete 
this series of volumes, he published the volume for 
Easter and Whitsuntide, entitled “ Christ Lives.” 3 
And as if these precious Bible promises were find- 
ing in him their fulfilment — “as. thy days, so shall thy 
strength be “ Those that be planted in the house 
of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall 
be fat and flourishing ; to show that the Lord is up- 
right ;” 4 — he laid before the Lord, in the year 1866, as 
the fruit of his vigorous, flourishing old age, his “ David 
the King of Israel,” 5 a work which worthily ranks 
with his earlier productions, “ Elijah the Tishbite ” and 
“ Elisha,” and completes, as with a sparkling gem, the 
circle of his Biblical Expositions. With ever-increasing 
streams of grace and blessing, the Lord was pleased to 
own the sermons which he preached, and his own pure 
and consistent life, whereby he more and more glorified 
Him who is “ fairer than the sons of men.” “ Whoever 
heard him honoured him, and whoever saw him loved 
him,” hundreds are ready to say with us. Love, how- 
ever humble and obscure might be the earthly lot of 
those who manifested it toward him, was always a 
sweet and refreshing consolation to him on his earthly 
pilgrimage. His “ circular-correspondence ” with his 

1 “ Der Leidende Christus. Em Passionsbuch.” Bielfeld, 1854. An 
English translation of this work, 5th edition, has been published by Messrs 
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 

2 “Adventsbuch. Zweite Auflage.” 1863. 

3 “ Christus lebt ! Ein Oster-nnd Pfingstbuch.” Bielfield, 1862. 

4 Deut. xxxiii. 25 ; Ps. xcii. 13-15. 

5 “ David der Koenig von Israel. Ein biblisches Lebensbild mit fort- 
gehender Beziehung auf die Psalmen.” Berlin. An English translation of 
this work has been published by Messrs T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


297 


brothers runs like a golden thread through a long course 
of years ; and the hours and days which he spent with 
them, particularly with his brother Emil, were always 
festival days, which for a long time after left cheerful 
and bright traces behind them. We nowhere discover 
so directly the unrestrained language of his heart as in 
these letters, from some of which we make the follow- 
ing extracts : — 

“ Halberstadt, 4 tli Oct. 1860. 

“ Beloved Brothers, — From amid a stream of 
thousandfold delights and spiritually quickening and 
refreshing enjoyments, from amid renewed friendships, 
gladdening like the radiant beams of a pleasant autumn 
day, I now withdraw myself for a little, that I may 
salute you all and thank you for your last and specially 

welcome circular-letter The 

meeting of the Kirchentag at Barmen 1 was not in any 
way particularly remarkable for its ostensible results, 
but it was very precious for the spirit of harmony 
and peace which, like the unclouded autumn sun 
which poured his rays all around us, pervaded it from 
the commencement to the close. The renewal of old 
hallowed friendships and the formation of new ones 
was, I may say, my principal business there. Fellow- 
ship and home intercourse with my brother of Duisburg 
formed the fragrant blossom of my enjoyment. During 
the ten days I spent at Elberfeld the waves of our 
friendly delights rose so high that they threatened to 
overwhelm us in a very sea of joy. Between me and 
my old congregation there was constantly renewed 
during these days the old bond of affection, so that 
they- became to me festival days. There flowed upon 
me, as there never had done before, a full stream of 

1 In September 1860, tbe eleventh meeting of the Kirchentag. 

T 


298 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

love and respect. I know not whence it came. From 
morning to evening I was constantly greeted by old 
friends, who shook me by the hand with hearty saluta- 
tions. After I had preached to them in the old church, 
they came to me with the earnest wish of all that I 
would again return to my old flock at Elberfeld, and 
end my days amongst them. And I must confess that 
I felt not a little pleasure in such a thought. . 

We are for the present sojourning 

with our children at Halberstadt. You may well con- 
ceive how happy we are in this family circle, richly 
blessed with the blessing of the God of Peace.” 


“ Potsdam, 19 th Jan. 1861. 

“We are all here in deep grief, and the crape which 
we wear is the true token of our sorrow. And so the 
King in all his splendour has passed away ! I often 
think that in this wicked, godless world and age such 
a King as he was was altogether too good for those 

over whom he reigned How much I 

particularly have lost in his departure you well know. 

But is it not a wonderful providence 

that these words, so much scoffed at — 4 As for me and 
my house we will serve the Lord' 1 — have renewed 

1 Speaking of Frederick William iv. in an article written for the “News 
of the Churches,” referred to below, Krummacher says : “ It is generally 
known that the King mounted his throne with the vow of the Israelite 
leader, which he also uttered before all the people, ‘ As for me and my house 
we will serve the Lord and who will refuse to bear him witness that he 
remained even till the end true to this his motto, and that in his public as 
well as in his private life, he laboured at least incessantly to act upon it. 
In science and in art, in the church and the public school, he left a good 

work behind him He has bequeathed to his successor 

•many great and promising plans, which await their realisation only in the 
future. It may justly be believed that the heir to the throne is prepared 
to take possession of this heritage. To the joy of all believing men, though 
under the censure of libertines, the life watchword of his royal brother, 


SUPPLEMENT. 


299 


themselves from the lips of the present King, and that 
he has publicly acknowledged the glorious inheritance 
of the c good confession V Has not the Lord in all this 
been pleased to give us a comforting token ? I think 
that He truly has. 

“ On the 2d of January, a few hours after the death 
of the King, I stood along with the ministers by the 
bedside of the departed. How lovely and calm did 
his countenance seem to us as we gazed upon it ! The 
young Crown-Prince came up to me, and with eyes 
dimmed with tears, and with quivering lips, took me 
affectionately by the hand. That sight comforted me ; 
and I thought with myself, the saddest persons in this 
chamber of death are, besides myself, the Prince and 
the two valets de chambre, who stand sobbing in the 
corner of the room. Alas, how desolate Sans-Souci 
will appear to me at the returning bloom of spring ! 

“ I have by request contributed, for the sake of the 
people of England, a sketch of the King’s character, to 
the pages of the ‘ News of the Churches,’ which has 
appeared in the February number of that journal. My 
article, ‘Eine Konigsparallele,’ 1 you will already have 
read in the ‘ Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung.’ . 

That General von Gerlach should have 

departed into eternity at the same time with his royal 
master is very noteworthy.” 

1 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord/ was renewed upon his 
lips, and not upon his lips alone. In his first royal speech he gave evidence 
that he had this never-to-be-forgotten record of the departed graven on his 
heart. The epitaph which his predecessor had designed for himself in these 
words, ‘ Here reposes, in God his Saviour , in the hope of a blessed resurrection 
and merciful judgment, based only on the merits of our most holy Redeemer 
Jesus Christ, and in expectation of life eternal, Frederick William iv.,’ he 
characterized as a l good confession — Tr. 

1 See Note 2, page 295. 


300 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


“ Potsdam, 2 6th October 1861. 

“ Beloved Brothers, — From July to the end of 
October — a long space of time. There are embraced 
in it many scenes in onr family life. If it is not all so 
radiant with sunshine as we could have wished, yet 
there were no parts of it which were not brightened by 
the rays of the Sun of which we sing : — 

4 The Sun which shines is Jesus, 

He brightens all our way ; 

His light from darkness frees us, 

He shines and makes it day.’ 

“ How bright were the days spent at the conference at 
Geneva , 1 and among friends in Lausanne ! Those were 
blessed days for the Church of Christ. Yea, we then felt 
as if we had come to the very outer-courts of the ‘ Jeru- 
salem that is above/ I cannot here tell you all about it. 
You, dear Adelaide, in Tecklenburg, already heard many 
things about it from me by word of mouth ; and you, 
dear Emil, have heard from me by letter regarding it ; 
and to you who are in Ballenstadt, M. will open the trea- 
sures of her recollection. It is possible that I may 
by and bye be able to send you a printed account of 
the meeting, which will convey to you some idea at least 
of the blessings and the joys wherewith the Lord en- 
riched us beside the banks of Lake Leman . 2 The 
festival of the coronation of the King 3 is now over. It 
was a very grand ceremonial, full of promise for Prussia, 
for which Cod is to be praised. Yesterday the King 
was here. He said to me : ‘I doubt not but that you 
accompanied me with your prayers during that solemn 
ceremonial : I know it. Believe me, I trembled when 

1 Meeting of tke Evangelical Alliance at Geneva, in September 1861. 

2 Lake of Geneva. 

3 At Konigsberg, in the Schlosskircbe, on tbe 19tb October 1861. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


301 


I took the crown from off the altar of the Lord, that 
is, from the hand of God. So great appeared to me 
to be the responsibility which with the oath I took 
upon myself, that I would wear it in His name, and only 
to His glory. Continue to pray for me that God would 
be pleased to strengthen me!’ I assured him that I 
would not fail to do as he desired. He then shook 
Heym and me heartily by the hand, and went into the 
chamber where the generals and the foreign princes 
were waiting for him. It was quite, observable that 
his whole soul vibrated with solemn emotion. That 
was distinctly seen in the whole tone of his words. 

But, dearest Wilhelm , 1 what sort of an old rational- 
ist is this that again peeps out of you ? — what ! that 
the Bible contains sayings which are proved to be false 
by the progress of science ? — The Bible, of which, ac- 
cording to the declaration of the Highest Authority, 
not one iota shall come to nought ? Has it then per- 
ished along with the doctrine of a mechanical inspira- 
tion, according to which the sacred writers wrote, self- 
consciously, and self-actively indeed, and with free 
impulse, but yet so under the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit as that no error flowed from their pens ? The 
Bible will not, indeed, convey to us instructions in 
geology ; but as little will it lead us into any geological 
error, or entangle us in any false notion. I am firmly 
convinced that the physical sciences which, according 
to the confession of their most distinguished students, 
are yet in their infancy, will, in the progress of research, 
in the end perfectly harmonize with the Bibie, and parti- 
cularly with the Mosaic account of the creation. Patience 
only is necessary for us, and particularly for writers 
on apologetics, that they do not rashly adopt any par- 

1 Krummacher’s brother-in-law, Wilhelm von Kiigelgen. 


302 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


ticular view, and seek to defend the cause of God with 
weapons which they will afterwards be forced to lay 
aside, exposing the cause to the calumnies of libertines. 
Kurtz, of Dorpat, has, I am sorry to say, often done 
this. He would have done excellent service if he had 
only been humble enough to confess that on this and 
that point he must abstain from expressing an opinion, 
because he had not as yet sufficient light to enable 
him to do so. Yet I agree with Kurtz, Hengstenberg, 
Auberlen , 1 Ebrard , 2 and an hundred others of our best 
theologians in saying : that if the canon of Scripture 
anywhere teaches error, then no confidence can at all 
be placed in any part of it. If the Book of Kings con- 
tains myths, why then not also the four Gospels ? But, 
dear Wilhelm, you have perhaps only wished to throw 
a paradox as a sort of ferment into our communications 
by letter with each other. But even if your head were 
full of scepticism and of unbelief, which is by no means 
the case, yet I know well what you are. 

“ Dear Emil, you would have spoken of Stahl some- 
what more gently than you really did, though you have 
done it more humorously than with any evil intention, 
had he been numbered among the dead at the time you 
wrote. I confess that Berlin has for me lost one of its 
chief attractions since this agitator and energetic man 


1 Was Professor of Theology at the University of Basel, where he laboured 
with great acceptance from 1851 to the time of his death in 1864. He was 
one of the most gifted and promising of the Evangelical Divines of Germany. 
His principal works are, “ Commentary on the Epistles to the Thessalonians,” 
for Lange’s “ Bibelwerk “ The Prophet Daniel, and the Revelations of 
John,” and “ The Divine Revelation,” English translations of which have 
been issued by the publishers of this work. — Tr. 

2 Professor of Theology at the University of Erlangen. He is the author 
of valuable expository works on “ The Epistle to the Hebrews The 
Epistles of J ohn ; ” and “ The Gospel History, ” and which have been pub- 
lished in “ Clark’s Foreign Theological* Library.” — Tr. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


303 


is no more there. It is no doubt true that he has so 
far, in the hearts of his truest and most ardent friends 
and partizans, such as Groon van Prinsterer, the Bishop 
of London , 1 with whom I am personally acquainted, von 
Rougemont, in Neuch&tel, and others, cast a deep 
shadow over himself by his dialectical eccentricities 
and his sophisms. What blessings this richly-gifted 
man might have left behind him in the world had he 
been in all respects sound and free ! What will the 
House of Parliament now do without him ? By the 
grace of God all is well with us, at least we would be 
ungrateful churls were we to complain rather than to 
give thanks. 

“ Have you heard of that remarkable scene which 
occurred at one of Hoffman’s church visitations which 
he held in Silesia ? One of the congregations which he 
there visited stood up against the reception of his 
c Improved Hymn-book.’ Hoffman directed the heads 
of households to meet together in the church that he 
might confer with them about the matter. ‘ Now 
friends,’ said he, ‘ what have you to allege against the 
new Hymn-book V A peasant replied, ‘ The purchase 
of it involves us in expense, and the congregation is 
poor.’ Hoffman answered ‘ That will be cared for. 
The poorest will obtain it gratuitously.’ Another pea- 
sant said, ‘ We wish to abide by the hymns which our 
fathers before us have sung.’ Hoffman in reply, ‘ Your 
fathers sung, it is true, only good hymns, but these 
are all contained in the new Hymn-book.’ A third 
peasant stood up and objected, ‘ So much is said about 
the devil in the new book.’ Hoffman answered, ‘ Yes, 
but there is also very much said about the devil in the 
Bible, will you reject it also V A fourth peasant then 

1 Now Archbishop of Canterbury. 


304 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

interposed, ‘ Yes ; but there is also something said 
about the devil's widow in it !’ Hoffman in astonish- 
ment answered, ‘ Why, that would be good indeed ; 
for then would the devil be dead. But where do you 
find anything said about the devils widow ? ’ The 
peasant, with the open book in his hand, cries, ‘ Here, 
here, General Superintendent ! ’ And so in truth it 
was. The printer had made a typographical error, and 
had inserted the words ‘devils widow’ (Wittwe) instead 
of the ‘ devil’s rage’ (Wittern) ! 

“ I now commend you to the protections and grace of 
the Lord, against the devil’s rage, and against his 
insinuations and his wiles.” 


“ Potsdam, 5th February 1862. 

“ I salute you in the name of God, my beloved 
brothers ! My first salutation to you, dear Emil ! A 
jubilee (gaudium) of both laughing and weeping — both, 
in a most literal sense — you prepared for me by your 
epistola gratulatoria (letter of congratulations) on my 
last birth-day. Your conjuring up ‘antediluvian’ pic- 
tures and personages from out of the buried past of 
our life at once agitated me with laughter, and opened 
the fountain of tears. Yes, there is a vast gap between 
the Kettwig ‘ Heisterbusch ’ 1 and the Potsdam royal 
gardens, and yet how much of the fresh breath of life 
still breathes upon me, even to this day, from these old 
oak groves of Kettwig! We were then, indeed, nothing 
more than boys of the forest rioting in the unconscious 
idolatry of nature ; but on that very account it is to- 
day all the easier for us to have compassion on those 
who are what we then were. What you say of old age 
from the heart I sympathize with. May God the Lord 

1 See page 24. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


305 


fulfil the wish with which you bless me ! — till now the 
only thing that has reminded me of old age is my now 
and then forgetting names. But in pleasure in study- 
ing, and in acquiring knowledge, as well as in preaching, 
I can as yet perceive no mark of decrease. But one 
must at least look for it, only may God keep us by His 
grace from outliving ourselves . 

“Very precious to me was your salutation on the 
morning of the 28th January, dearest brother-in-law, 
Wilhelm ! It refreshed me, breathing upon me like the 
fragrance of the sacrifices continually offered up in the 
great temple of the Hercynian 1 pine forests. Be 
thankful, thou noble child of man; thou whom God has 
endowed so richly, that, even though without name 
or worldly dignity, thou wouldst not exchange places 
with any one of all in whose nostrils is the breath of 
life ! That the c circular-letters/ beloved Tecklenburg 
friends, have on this occasion remained so unusually 
long a time with you, ye yourselves must be self- 
condemned ; and therefore ye shall not be condemned 
by me. Never were the letters which came from you 
so hoary with age as at this time. Yet were they 
heartily welcome. Six months go past — at least so it 
appears to me — quicker now than formerly did six 
weeks. Yes, age creeps on us stealthily, and then 
at length it gallops along with us, bearing us — to the 
end ! 

“ Ye dear friends at Bremen, it is true, as ye have 
experienced it, that we have a living God who is able 
not only to do exceeding abundantly ‘ above all that 
we ask or think/ but also beyond the calculations of 

1 The great forest of Germany in the time of Julius Caesar. It is now 
in many parts cut down. The “ Black Forest,” the “ Thuringer,” and the 
“ Boehmerwald,” are parts of it that still remain. 


306 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

all human art and science. May He further glorify Him- 
self in His dealings toward the dear afflicted one ! The 
young doctor 1 I often in my thoughts confound with 
the old, as if the past thirty years were blotted out. Is 
not that an anticipation of eternity ? — There shall be 
time no longer ! I am oftentimes not conscious when 
our Adolf or Emil’s Hermann are here, whether I am 
talking with my son and nephew or with my brother. 
It is a curious phenomenon ; it is as if Uncle Moller 
were almost perennial. 

“ Beloved brother and sister at Dtisseldorf, Gustavus 
and Marie, receive also my most hearty thanks for your 
good wishes. Your golden fidelity has not a little 
contributed to make my days precious to me. How 
greatly we rejoice to see you in the circle of your 
children, grandchildren, and so many Christian friends ! 
The Lord never suffers any of His children to be in 
distress as to their temporal wants. He directs with 
the gracious interposition of His love all the movements 
of their earthly concerns.” 

“ Potsdam, 23d August 1863. 

“ There is an end of the world for 

each one singly, and I think I have now arrived at the 
beginning of such, especially when I consider our pre- 
sent political situation. Everywhere the earth trembles 
under us. My world perishes ; and will not also the 
whole present world come to nought ? — and we may 
for the first time look down upon the new from heaven 
above. Yes, this is certain ! Let us then be joyful 
in the blessed hope ! 

Why is there such death-like stillness in our Evan- 
gelical Church, whilst Borne is making such fearful 

1 His nephew, Adolf Krummacher, who followed him on the 26th 
January 1869, to the eternal home. He was 31 years of age. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


307 


efforts to devour us ! Even the Confessional fanaticism 
appears to he cooling down, though it shows by its red 
bivouac fires that we Evangelicals are still in exist- 
ence. Our Conferences are dull ; even that held at 
Detmold has not thrown any sparks over the Teuto- 
burgerwald . 1 No excitement even sprang out of the 
festival week of the annual meetings of the religious 
societies in the Wupperthal. The Berlin Pastoral Con- 
ference went gently round about rather than touched 
the pressing questions of the day, and was very dry ; 
whilst the Catholic conferences held at Trent , 2 Cologne, 
and Mechlin , 3 vomited forth flame, even though it 

were demoniacal Stahl was wont to stir 

us all up. Then some light gleamed out from the 
Church. Now — what a grey firmament over us, with- 
out rain and storm ! — may God have compassion on 
His Zion ! ” 

“ Potsdam, 18 th August 1864. 

“ I was a short time ago a good deal in the devil's 
kitchen of Baur, Strauss, Benan, and Schenkel, where 
the enchanting potion is prepared, which in due time 
will produce the anti-Christian intoxication of the 
people. Sure enough, ‘ great power and much cun- 
ning are their terrible weapons ; ' and science has yet 
much to do before it can boast of a complete victory 
over their bulwarks. Is it questionable whether it 
will ever wholly succeed ? Our chief bulwark is 
experience." 

1 A chain of mountains in Germany. 

2 In 1845, the ter-centenary of the opening of the Council of Trent was 
celebrated in that city and elsewhere by the Catholic Church of Germany 
with great eclat. In 1863, from 20th to 30th June, the ter-centenary of the 
close of the Council was celebrated with yet greater splendour. It is to 
this that Krummacher refers. — T r. 

3 Or Malines, a town in Belgium. — T r. 


308 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP DR KRUMMACHER. 


“ Potsdam, 25 th June 1865. 

“ Since the death of Knapp and of Mallet, I feel that 
two more blanks have been made which can never again 
be filled up. The souls of these men were like two gal- 
vanic batteries charged with celestial electricity. There 
was need only for a gentle touch, and out of the one 
there flowed a stream of sacred poetry, from the other 
a torrent of holy love. The young theological recruits 
in this country are very well schooled , but they are 
bloodless, without elasticity, and poor in their own 
independent thoughts. 

44 Our garden is this summer like a large green 
breeding-cage for birds. It is full of nests, which 
we find everywhere, from which the young ones are 
seen flying about sportfully, and without fear. Till a 
few days ago . five nightingales warbled in emulation 
with each other night and day. We also are living 
almost constantly in the open air, among the green 
trees. 

4 4 Are you, dear Emil, going to the sea-side ? Whether 
we will this summer, for a time, be able to leave the 
Potsdam paradise (from which the serpent however is 
not wanting), is as yet uncertain. I do not feel any 
great need of it, since I am well able to bear the 
burden of all the official duties that here devolve 
upon me.” 

“ Potsdam, 30th August 1865. 

“ . ... Alas, on this occasion, in Ballenstadt , 1 

the gentle golden sun 2 of the princely . castle did not 
shine upon us. Instead of her, a wandering, motley 
crowd of opera singers played about us, almost giving 

1 A town in Anhalt, lying at the foot of the Hartz mountains, not very 
far from Halberstadt. 

2 Fredericka, Duchess of Anhalt. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


309 


a character to the place. But, as it appeared to me, 
they were honest, respectable people. Their rehearsals 
of their songs, echoing out from the public hall of our 
inn, were heard by us in our apartments, and often 
threw the spell of their enchantment over us. There 
is a glory of the world, which, when health is enjoyed, 
only faith enables one to cast at . the feet of the devil , 1 
for “this is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even faith.” That is perhaps a trivial truth, but never- 
theless it is a truth which experience confirms to every 
one. 

“In Ballenstadt I saw again also our old friend 
Hoffman, the Upper Court-preacher. He is the same 
cheerful, amiable man that he was forty-five years ago 
— youthful, hearty ; yet it is noticeable that now and 
then, suddenly, and but for a moment, the old man is 
seen looking out of his face — a look which, perhaps, in 
a few years more, will become stationary : a reflected 
shadow of the approaching future. This may be the 
case also, perhaps, with many more of us. The two 
Barudas, the old, good, fairy queens in the Lustgarten, 
at Ballenstadt, I missed very much.” 


“ Potsdam, 21 st July 1866. 

“Yes, a sorrowful time ; yet with what glory is it 
brightened ! May God the Lord gain his purpose 
with our people. I write as if from the midst of a 
battle-field. The ‘ rider on the red horse ’ 2 sends his 
bloody sacrifices by hundreds to Potsdam ; and the 
rider on the ‘pale’ horse every day makes demand 
for such around us. I am chaplain to the hospital, and 

must wait upon the sick As it seems 

to me, the worst yet stands before us : a desperate 

2 Rev. vi. 4. 


1 Matt. iv. 8-10. 


310 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

war. Yet I am of good cheer. The letters of our 
people breathe all humility and confidence in God ; 
and in how pleasing and promising a light does the 
King appear ! 

“ The sermons I preach are all of an elevated tone. 
Even into the souls of dry, stiff preachers there has 
come the quickening breath. The people also who 
for years had not been seen in a church, now frequent 
the prayer-meeting. May God grant a true revival of 
religion ! 

“We are, God be praised for it, as yet all well, 
although we sorrow in sympathy with many bereaved 

families here Can you explain to me how it 

comes about that in this war the spirit of poetry is alto- 
gether silent ? The poems published in the newspapers 
are unworthy of the occasion. They are but a feeble echo 
of the songs of 1812-13. Is it because it is a Govern- 
ment war and not a people's war ? Then, in that case, 
the fidelity and heroism of our soldiers were all the 
more worthy of admiration. Or is it because Pegasus 
shrinks in terror before these perfected implements of 
murderous war, the modern musket and cannon?" 

“ Potsdam, 26 th Sept 1866. 

“ Would that there were now peace ! But what will 
be the fruits of this war, I mean for the kingdom of 
God ? I fear the Lord is too little thought of amongst 
us. And what will grow out of the ‘ United Ger- 
many?' Such a scheme of union often appears to me 
to be hazardous, and likely to realise a state of things 
such as would arise if king lion were to say, ‘ I wish 
now to unite together into one tribe the dogs and 
the cats, seeing they are already natives of the same 
country,' and in prosecution of his design were to 


SUPPLEMENT. 


311 


shut them up in one cage, without however previously 
changing their natures. But, at the same time, I am 
not without hope for the future, and with our ‘ God 
nothing is impossible/ Moreover, I rejoice that now 
again we may discuss biblical subjects from the pulpit, 
for the people had for months a disposition to hear and 
speak only of political events, and even the cholera was 
in comparison a secondary matter, at least with those 

who were spared its infliction 

What a precious, glorious memory, dear Wilhelm, is 
that which the hero of Skalitz, 1 your brave son Ger- 
hard, has left behind him ! He still lives, and will 
long continue to live, in the cherished recollection of 

our families May God the Lord take 

us all under His gracious protection till we too receive 
our ‘ discharge 9 from this earth ! ” 


“ Potsdam, 26 th May 1867. 

“ How noble was he 2 who has just passed away from 
this earth ! Yet he has only gone from us on a journey. 
We ought to praise God that he has gone at length to 
his home. But yet it is very very difficult for the 
feeling of thanks within us to gain the mastery over 
the deep deep sorrow. 0 God, help us to triumph 
by faith, and not to seek the living among the dead. 
Now he bears in his hand the palm of peace, and 
enjoys fellowship with his Gerhard and with his little 
daughter, who went home before him, and, above all, with 
Him who has helped him at length into His heavenly 
kingdom. Ah! how long must we tarry here before 
we are again united with all who are there ! Praise 

1 Gerhard von Kiigelgen, Captain of the 38th Prussian Regiment of Foot. 
He fell on the 28th June, in the battle at Skalitz, in Bohemia— T r. 

2 His brother-in-law, Wilhelm von Kiigelgen, of Ballenstadt, Chamberlain 
to the Duke of Anhalt. — T r. 


312 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

be to Jesus Christ, the Prince of -Peace! He never 
leaves us by death.” 

How soon, alas ! did he himself stand in more press- 
ing need of this very consolation. The remembrance of 
the never-to-be-forgotten, altogether delightful meeting 
of the Evangelical Alliance at Amsterdam, and of his 
sojourn thereafter for a short time at Halberstadt, where 
the grandfather with joyful emotion baptized his last- 
born grandson, was peculiarly refreshing and animating 
to his heart. The harvest passed away, and the winter 
days came with their varied scenes, when, on the 14th 
of December, the faithful companion of his earthly pil- 
grimage, Charlotte, the most precious and most beloved, 
according to his own oft-repeated testimony, of all he 
possessed - on earth, was laid on a bed of sickness. In 
the course of the summer she had, in company with her 
husband, revisited those scenes which were hallowed 
in the memories of their youth, her old paternal home 
at Frankfurt, the burning of whose venerable cathedral 
of historic interest, which happened at that time, deeply 
moved her, and Puhrort, the cradle of her happy married 
life. On the 2 2d of December she calmly fell asleep in 
Jesus, after a brief illness, happily free from pain and 
anguish. Her tender, cheerful, maternal faithfulness 
and love, irradiated by a child-like piety, which 
scattered every cloud from around her, veiled itself 
during her illness not for a moment : on the contrary, 
a light, as if a reflection from the world above, shone 
around her death-bed. The love and the veneration of 
a child are not able to depict her beautiful image as it 
is enshrined in the heart, yet may it be partly seen 
brightly shining out in the following letter : — 


SUPPLEMENT. 


313 


“ Friedrich Wilh, Krummacher to his Parents . " 

“ Ruhrort, in June 1823. 

“ I salute you with a warm, warm heart, dearly beloved 
parents ; for the first time I salute you in my new life. 

O' help me to thank the Lord, and sing to Him with a * 
loud voice a new song, for He looks graciously on me, 
and it almost seems as if He could not, and meant not, 
to withdraw from me His paternal eye. How joyful I 
have been because of all His gracious dealings with me, 
since, with tears in my eyes, and with your blessing 
resting on my head, I took my departure from your 
beloved circle. — Listen ! 

“ On the 4th of June, at ten o’clock, I was united in 
marriage before the Lord to my dear Lotte. Passavant 1 
blessed our union, and he was so deeply moved and so 
joyful, and spoke so energetically, with such depth and 
clearness and unction, that I often thought I heard my 
own fathers voice in his. The great crowd of persons 
present on the occasion wept. Lotte and I said “ Ja- 
Ja-” with as much gladness of spirit, and with as much 
decision as if we had been asked whether we were willing 
to enter the gates of Paradise. With trustful confidence 
in the Lord, and with love to Him and to one another 
we left the altar, and we both carried in our hearts the 
seal and pledge of our happiness. We were happy 
then — are to-day happier than before, and so it will be 
for ever. Of that there is no doubt. God has given 
me a noble wife, and to the congregation a pastor s 
wife (Pfarrerin), who, as such, leaves nothing to be 
wished for besides. Therefore, let your hearts rejoice 
with ours ; your joy has a firm foundation on which to 
rest. After our marriage we spent a few hours in the 
1 See p. 109. 

U 


314 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

# circle of our intimate friends. My Manuel 1 gave us 
the last parting kiss. The tears flowed copiously. 
We set off. Lotte acted nobly. She held firm by the 
words : ‘ She will leave her father and mother, and 
cleave unto her husband ; 9 and because the Lord had 
said this she found it quite out of place to complain 
much, or to despond. In the name of the Lord, and 
trusting in His help, we took our departure, and were 
happy and joyful — how could it be otherwise ? It was 
a pleasure for me to contemplate my Lotte in the hour 
of her departure from her father’s house — the bitterest 
of her life. Our journey on the Rhine was full of plea- 
sure. Peace and joy in fulness came over us. We 
spent a precious day with the old faithful Wilhelmi, 
the pastor of St Goar, a second day in Cologne, and 
arrived happily on Monday morning at Dtisseldorf. 
Our first going out brought us into the arms of — our 
beloved Emil ! What a hearty salutation we met 
with ! How shall I describe it to you ? O how dear, 
how dear my brother Emil is to me ! All the friends 
that I ever lose I find in him again, and I might 
almost say, in a nobler form than ever. What a 
happy lot has fallen to me, yea, happy beyond com- 
parison ! 

“ In the inn we occupied a quiet little chamber to- 
gether. In a short time a great crowd of the people of 
Ruhrort began to throng about the square. I went 
down with Emil, and entering into their midst saluted 
them with the salutation of peace. What a moment 
was that ! What emotion stirred within their minds, 
and what a light of holy joy beamed upon their coun- 
tenances ! Lotte stood above at the window, and 
could only sob. I could not say much to the people. 

1 See p. 99. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


315 


Emil had to come to my help. It was an hour of divine 
mercy, and my soul was deeply moved. On the follow- 
ing morning another company came from Ruhrort to 
salute me, with eyes beaming with kindness, and with 
words of hearty welcome as they shook me by the hand. 
About ten o’clock the whole multitude formed into a 
procession, and accompanied us to the banks of the 
Rhine. What a sight there met our view ! Here 
there lay a large boat, with sails unfurled, and wreathed 
all around with ornaments and branches. Three large 
flags floated from the masts, like three banners of vic- 
tory. The chairs provided for me and Lotte were 
wreathed also with flowers. We seated ourselves, and 
forthwith the anchor was weighed. One of our elders, 
a pious old man, held the rudder, ten young lads 
rowed with all their strength, the flags spread out, and 
the wind was favourable. The ship glided along majes- 
tically down the stream ; the King himself could not 
have been conveyed more royally than we were. Now 
we conversed seriously together, and our conversation 
always ended in thanks to God. The Spirit of God 
hovered over the waters, bound our souls together, and 
revealed His presence in our words and actions. The 
people of Ruhrort who accompanied us said, that the 
four hours they had spent in the ship with us were the 
fairest and happiest of their whole life. There was 
eating and drinking at the table, which was richly 
spread, but all was becoming and worthy. It was 
Christian joy that ruled in our midst. For Lotte’s 
sake there were some women also with us in the ship. 

“ At Kaiserwerth, Uerdingen, and other places which 
we passed in our voyage, we were saluted with the 
firing of cannon. 0 how much Emil and I delighted in 
thinking and speaking of you ! Had you been only 


316 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


present with us in our boat we would gladly have 
resigned to you our seats. Your health was several 
times proposed in the toasts of the burghers. 

“At length we came near to the birch woods of Duis- 
burg*, when lo ! little boats adorned with birch branches 
were seen rapidly sailing up the stream to meet us. 
Scarcely had they seen our flags when they saluted us, 
firing their cannon and muskets. Our ship gave answer 
to the salutations. They soon boarded us, and heartily 
welcomed us, shaking us warmly by the hand. The 
boats were all bound together, and thus, like a little 
fleet, we floated down the river. Soon the cannon at 
R-uhrort were fired, and the tower of the church came 
in view. I went with Emil and Lotte into one of the 
ships near us, and we there prayed together unto the 
Lord. The banks on both sides of the river became 
the longer the more animated. At Homberg, several 
cannon were fired as a friendly salutation to us. 
Ruhrort now lay before us, beautiful in the sunshine, 
under a clear blue sky. The cannon roared without 
intermission. The whole banks swarmed with people ; 
and — what a lovely sight ! — all the ships were adorned 
with their gayest flags. Now the bells pealed forth 
their welcome, my heart was filled within me, and tears 
began to flow, while inwardly I prayed to the Lord. I 
cannot describe to you the state of our minds when we 
at length set foot on the banks of the river at Ruhrort. 
The burgomaster and the president of the presbytery 
for the time being received us at the side of the ship. 
The teachers were there at the head of their scholars ; 
the girls, dressed in white and adorned with shoots of 
ivy, came to meet me with flower wreaths ; they 
gathered in a circle around me and delivered to me a 
beautiful poem. They then all sang a hymn in four- 


SUPPLEMENT. 


317 


part beautiful music. I could now only lean on Emil's 
arm and weep, and my Lotte sobbed with emotion. 
As soon as the singing ceased, I composed myself and 
spoke a few words from my heart to the assembled 
people. A hymn was again sung, and, thereafter, 
the whole company formed into a procession, and we 
walked away toward our home. I walked between 
the burgomaster and the president of the presbytery. 
The children, wearing wreaths on their heads, strewed 
flowers in the way. Emil accompanied Lotte, and then 
the whole congregation followed behind. The whole of 
Ruhrort was adorned with flowers like a very garden. 
All the streets were planted thick with branches and 
twigs. Everywhere there were crowns, wreaths, and 
tablets covered with well-chosen precious sentences 
from the Scriptures. Banners and handkerchiefs were 
waved from the windows of the houses, and branches 
and flowers covered the streets. Every one bowed with 
a friendly salutation to me as I passed. I greeted them 
in return, and prayed and wept and smiled — all at the 
same time (durcheinander.) Thus we were accompanied 
to the parsonage-house. The rooms were crowded. I 
poured out my heart in prayer aloud, in which the 
whole company, moved to tears, joined with me. I 
then went into my chamber alone, and shortly there- 
after we left the house and proceeded to that of Haniel, 
whose family gave us a most friendly welcome. Emil 
remained one day with us. On the following day 
Lotte began to see after the affairs of her housekeeping, 
while I received visits and studied. 

“Last Sabbath I was introduced by Mohn. The 
church was beautifully adorned with flowers and 
inscriptions, and was more densely crowded with people 
than it had ever been before. An additional gallery 


318 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


had been erected, and yet the house could not contain 
all the people. They stood in crowds before the door, 
and clustered round the windows, from which the 
frames had been removed that they might hear. I 
preached from the text, 1 Cor. iii. 11-13, 1 with much 
delight, and as I hear energetically : God be praised 
for this. It was very difficult for me to compose 
myself during these exciting days. After the ser- 
mon, Mohn introduced me, and he did so with great 
dignity and solemnity. He spoke with unction, 
and made mention of my ‘venerable, pious father, 
who had laid his hand on the head of his son, bless- 
ing him.' 

“At midday a large party gathered around our table 
at dinner. Emil, Molenar, our noble brother from 
Crefeld, Daubenspeck from Homberg, von Ernster from 
Xante, were the pastors who were present on the 
occasion. Ross was unwell. On Monday we made 
our first journey to Baerl and Budberg. These were 
precious hours. This Ross of Budberg, no, there is 
not a more amiable fellow than he is. We sat and 
chatted together till midnight. Ross gave utterance to 
many precious, thoroughly evangelical sentiments and 
maxims. It was specially soothing to us, dear father, 
to find that he cherishes so great affection for you. He 
loves ’us, and treats us as if we were his own children. 

“ Last night was the first which we have yet spent in 
our own house, and to-day our dinner has been cooked 
at our own fire, and we have eaten our own bread for 
the first time. Our housekeeping goes on altogether 

1 “ For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, 
precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every man’s work shall be made mani- 
fest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and 
the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” 


SUPPLEMENT. 


319 


most splendidly. Yes, my Lotte understands her de- 
partment, and everybody praises me that I have been 
so fortunate ! ” 


After the space of twenty -five years, in 1848, he 
addressed to her the following salutation on her birth- 
day, the 18 th of May : — 

“ If thou but glad and cheerful art, 

Then we all responsive sing ; 

And peaceful joy pervades each heart, 

Coming like the breath of Spring. 

“ Thy presence fills our home with light ; 

If no cloud obscures thy ray, 

Though storms without be black as night, 

Here it shines like fairest May ! 

“ God grant us then, from day to day, 

That we still thy light enjoy ; 

Then come to us whatever may, 

Songs alone our tongues employ ! ” 1 . 

And again, twenty years later, seven weeks after her 
happy death, he wrote, on the 13th of February 1868, 
as follows : — 

“ Beloved Brothers, — Pardon me that the circular- 
letters have been so long withheld from you. Since 

1 “ Wenn Du nur frisch und frohlich hist, 

Gleich find wir’s Alle auch, 

Und uns umweht’s zu jeder Frist 
Wie milder Friihlingshauch. 

u Du hist die Sonn’ in unserm Haus ; 

Strahlst Du nur woltenffei, 

So bluht im wild’sten Zeitgebraus 
Uns doch der schonste Mai ! 

“ Walt’s Gott denn, dass es Tag fur Tag 
Nur so durch Dich uns mai’t, 

Dann sprechen wir, was kommen mag — 

Stets, stets von guter Zeit ! ” 


320 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

the 2 2d of December of last year, I can scarcely think 
of anything else — and can even to-day with difficulty 
do so — than the desolation which has blighted my life. 
Alas ! what have I not lost in the now glorified one 
who has been taken away from me ? Even the joy 
which I felt in the duties of my sacred office leaned — I 
now for the first time feel that it is so — essentially on 
her , and the love which was so richly bestowed on me 
and on my house was chiefly owing to the pure benevo- 
lence and genuine, upright friendship which she mani- 
fested towards all. Yes, she was the sun of our 
dwe llin g ; and, alas ! it has now set. May the Divine 
Sun of righteousness all the more brightly shine through 
the clouds which have now cast their dark shadows 
around my life, and will continue to enshroud me 
until I have shaken the dust of this valley of tears 
and of death from off my feet ! 

“ Beloved brothers and sisters, I thank you with all 
my heart for your fraternal sympathy, and for the 
words of consolation which you have addressed to me. 
Yes, yes, we know where she who has fallen asleep now 
is ; but yet our sorrow at our loss will continue till — 
and I will not have long to wait for it — we are again 
united with her. Ah, would that a clearer view were 
granted to me into the heavenly world! ‘We walk 
by faith, not by sight/ Certainly, certainly ; but yet 
how difficult it is for us poor pilgrims on earth to do 
so. My daughters, who are now my great comfort, 
join with me in heartiest salutations to you. Bemember 
us in your prayers before the Lord.” 

“ They who walk through the valley of Baca make 
it a well.” “ In the multitude of my thoughts within 
me Thy comforts delight my soul,” thus could he say 


SUPPLEMENT. 


321 


with the holy psalmist David ; and however sorrowful 
were ^ the nights which he spent in weeping, and how- 
ever dark were his days, yet the joyful words, “ The 
Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” uttered in the 
full confidence of faith, fell from his lips on New Year’s 
Day — eight days after the dear companion of his life- 
journey was laid to rest in the peaceful grave — when 
he addressed his deeply moved congregation from the 
pulpit, and showed them the pathway which leads from 
the dark valley of earth up to the sunny heights where 
the good Shepherd feeds His flock in the green pastures. 
With gracious condescension and love the Lord led him 
into these green pastures. It wa£ the presence of his 
eldest sister which for the first time brightened the 
days of his sorrow with the golden memories of child- 
hood. Afterwards, a never-to-be-forgotten family fes- 
tival, as a refreshing draught to a thirsty traveller, 
as a salutation from the world above, so quickened his 
heart that he was able to give expression to his 
emotions in the words of the poet : — 

“ We sing of the realms of the blest, 

That country so bright and so fair ; 

And oft are its glories confess’d, 

But what must it be to be there ! ” 1 

On the 13th July, the hundredth birthday of 
Friedrich Adolf Krummacher, the author of the de- 
lightful book of “ Parables,” all his children, to the 
number of six, there having at that time been no 
death amongst them, together with a large number 
of grandchildren, met at Tecklenburg to hold a festival 

1 “ Ich hah’ von feme, 

Herr, Deinen Thron erblickt, 

Und hatte gerne 

Weiii Herz vorausgeschickt ! ” 


322 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


in memory of their beloved father. The sermon “in 
memoriam” was preached by Friedrich Wilhelm, 1 the 
eldest son, from the text, “Now, that the dead are 
raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth 
the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the 
dead, but of the living : for all live unto Him.” 2 In 
the second part of that discourse, he said, “We this 
day experience in a spiritual sense what once happened 
to the patriarch Jacob. We also see with the inner 
eye the ladder placed which he saw in a dream ; 3 we 
mount on its steps to fellowship with those who are 
above, while Jacob only saw them ascending and 
descending. We salute those who stood near our 
hearts on earth, and whose images will hover around 
us till we ourselves also are dismissed from this world, 
and mount upward to the skies. They of whom we 
speak lived, or at least all died, in faith. No, they are 
not dead. They yet live unto the Lord, and not as 
mere shadows, but personally as we knew them and 
loved them when they were with us on this earth. 
God calls them by the same names which as distinct 
persons they bore when on earth. Oh, how many are 
there among these ransomed ones in glory, who now wear 
the crown of life, whom I name as my brothers and 
sisters according to the flesh, but also, God be praised, 
according to the Spirit ! But on this day, the 13th of 
July 1868, one especially stands from amid the multi- 
tudes of the glorified in the foreground before the eye 
of our memory — our venerable father, Friedrich Adolf, 
to the remembrance of whom the festival of this day is 
dedicated.” 

1 The subject of this Autobiography. 

2 Luke xx. 37, 38. 3 Gen. xxviii. 10, etc. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


323 


On the front of the old paternal home a slab of white 
marble was raised, bearing in golden letters the inscrip- 
tion : — 


TO THEIR DEAR FATHER 

DR FRIEDRICH ADOLF KRUMMACHER 
BORN HERE ON THE 13th JULY 1767 
DIED AT BREMEN ON THE 4th APRIL 1845 
BY HIS SIX CHILDREN 
IN TOKEN OF A LOYE WHICH NEVER FADES. 

Vixit, vivit, nec umquam moriturus est . 1 

The white tablet was surrounded with an oaken 
wreath by his grandchildren. A hymn was sung, and 
thereafter the eldest son pronounced these words as 
the termination of the festival : “To him that over- 
cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I 
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new 
name written, which no man knoweth saving he that 
receiveth it .” 2 

The sisters and brothers remained for a few days 
together still at Tecklenburg after this celebration, en- 
joying intimate intercourse together. The hymns com- 
posed by the grandfather were sung in joyful harmony by 
the grandchildren, at times on the heights of the ancient 
castle, at other times in the woods, or in the hospitable 
parsonage-house ; and on these occasions the voices of 
the parents mingled with those of their children. On 
the last evening before their departure to their several 
homes, the hymn of Zinzendorf was sung : “ All we who 
here ” etc? 

1 He lived, lie lives, and will never die. 2 Rev. ii. 17. 

3 “ Die wir uns allliier beisammen linden.” See p. 291. 


324 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


After these happy days spent at this memorial festi- 
val our father spent no less joyful days for several 
weeks in the circle of his children, in the “ pine and fir 
temple ” of the Hartz mountains, full of adoring wonder 
at the goodness of God, who had made this earth so 
beautiful. Refreshed and strengthened both in body 
and spirit he returned to Potsdam ; and the sermons he 
there preached bore about them the stamp of renewed 
youth, as we then thought, but, as we now think, since 
the veil which then hid from us the purpose of God 
toward him has been removed, the marks of that glory 
which was about to be revealed. “ Did not our hearts 
burn within us ” when he appeared in our midst, with a 
smiling eye, and a calm peace resting on his counte- 
nance ? We perceived it not when he was beside us, 
so earnest and calm, so gentle and loving, that then 
One was amongst us, his invisible Master, of whom he 
delighted to sing along with his children : — 

“ Hallelujah ! 1 0 the height, 

0 the depth of matchless grace, 

That we with mortal sight should see 
The God that loved us, face to face ; 

u That the Father of all spirits, 

In whom all wonders lie concealed, 

The unseen -working Power should stand 
So near to human sense revealed ! ” 2 

1 For this, and the other metrical renderings to the end of this chapter, 
and at page 345, the Translator is indebted to the kindness of Professor 
Blackie, of the University of Edinburgh. 

2 “ Hallelujah ! welche Hohen, 

Welche Tiefen reicher Gnad’, 

Wenn wir dem in’s Herze sehen, 

Der uns so geliebet hat. 

“ Dass der Yater aller Geister, 

Der der Wunder Abgrund ist, 

Dass Du, unsiclitbarer Meister , 

Uns so fiihlbar nahe bist !” 


SUPPLEMENT. 


325 


The winter, with its long dark nights, gradually wore 
on, and with it also the sacred season of Advent. “ So 
often as that hymn, ‘ How must I receive Thee / is sung 
by the congregation in full chorus, it sounds to me as 
if suddenly a bright ray of spring darted down upon 
me through the approaching winter night, and I feel 
myself elevated by its lofty inspiration, as if the 
gracious King of Peace Himself had come to me in 
person, to set my poor heart free at once from all its 
woe and sorrow,” — thus he wrote in the introduction 
to the sermon which he intended to preach on the third 
Advent Sunday from the text : “ Art thou He that 
should come, or do we look for another?” 

“ Be patient then ! 

Soon shall the day of sorrow cease, 

And from the seed of tears, with rich increase, 

From God a crop shall grow of love and peace ! 

Be patient then ! 

The sting of woe was guilt ; but we, 

By Christ’s most precious blood, from guilt are free : 

Be patient then ! 

u March onward thou ! 

How many a glimpse of love divine, 

Through scowling sky and surly storm doth shine, 

Whilst on a path of thorns we pant and pine ! 

Then onward thou ! 

A few short steps, and God’s high grace 
Thy bleeding feet shall plant on flowery place : 

March onward thou ! ” 1 

1 u Geduld ! Geduld ! 

Wie lange wird’s noch wahren, 

So bliih’n uns aus der Thranensaat die Aehren 
Der ew’gen Liebe auf durch Gottes Huld ! 

Geduld ! Geduld ! 

Was sind, seit uns’re Herzen 

Hit Christi Blut besprengt, der Erde Schmerzen ? 

Der Drangsal Stachel ist der Siinden Schuld ! 


326 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

As these last lines of his own hymn were read to him 
he nodded joyfully his assent, yet not perhaps at the 
same time imagining how very near was the hour of 
his departure. With a countenance radiant with love 
and goodness he spent the evening of the 9th December 
among his children, as he had been accustomed, yet if 
possible more cheerful, and more tenderly affectionate ; 
and only a brief hour later, as the morning of the 10th 
December was drawing near, then, like Elijah, he took 
his departure heavenward ! “ The gracious Prince of 

Peace had come to him in person, to release his poor 
heart at once from all its woe and sorrow.” Yes, he 
fell asleep in the Neschika of God. 1 Death was swal- 
lowed up in victory, and his calm and peaceful counte- 
nance, as he lay on his bed of death, spoke only of the 
glory of that life which never dies. Oh the hot tears of 
affection which fell from our eyes, and the prayers and 
thanksgivings and vows which were uttered by us, as 
we stood in sorrow around his coffin ! Now, for the first 
time, was the love and veneration which he had gained 
for himself at Potsdam, as he had done everywhere 
else in so rich a measure, fully made manifest. Out on 
the streets the sorrowing congregation gathered in 
crowds, when, on the third Advent Sunday, on which 
he had intended to proclaim to them the word of the 
Cross, as he had often done before, his coffin, adorned 
with flowers and palm branches, stood in the house of 

“ Voran ! Voran ! 

Wie mancber Grass von Oben 

Versuszt uns mitten nnter Sturmes Toben 

Die Wallfahrt scbon auf ranber Dornenbahn. 

Mit Gott voran ! 

Drei Scbritte nocb, so steben 

Die wunden Fiisse auf den ew’gen Hoben, 

Und Miibe, Noth und Tod sind abgetban ! ” 

1 See Note, p. 234. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


327 


God. To them the Lord now called by the mouth 
of another, his young colleague, the Court-preacher 
Rogge : “ They that be teachers shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn 
many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever.” 1 

Oh it is lovely, and how it helps to lighten and to 
sweeten the burdens and sorrows of the pilgrimage of 
earth, to know that there are in heaven those who, if 
we call after them in the words of the apostle : “ Love 
never dies,” 2 will answer in the words which are heard 
in our inmost hearts : “No, never, never !” Oh there 
are certainly amongst you, beloved brothers and 
sisters in the Lord, not a few who are conscious 
of such an intimate fellowship with citizens of heaven. 
Let the remembrance of them remain with you as a 
blessing ; walk in the footsteps of those who have died 
in the Lord ; follow closely after them, and rest not till 
you are able to say with the apostle, with full inward 
truth, “Our conversation is in heaven; from - whence also 
we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall 
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto 
His glorious body, according to the working whereby 
He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” 
These were the words with which he concluded the 
sermon he preached on the occasion of the commemora- 
tion festival in honour of his father, Friedrich Adolf. 
“ Out conversation is in heaven .”■ — This formed the 
watchword of his whole life, and was the text of the 
last sermon he preached. We have inserted it in the 
Appendix, together with the sermon preached on the 
New Years Day already mentioned. His birthday 
motto, in the manual of the Moravian brethren for the 

2 “ Charity never faileth.” — 1 Cor. xiii. 8. 


1 Dan. xii. 3. 


328 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


year 1868, is this : — “ Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- 
tion of the world.” 

From his first congregation at Ruhrort there came 
forth the following lines expressive of their endur- 
ing love for him who had many years before been their 
pastor : — 


“ Ruhrort, 10th December 1868. 

“ 4 A mighty man in Israel died to-day ! * 

So rang the knell that brought thy death to me, 

And now in spirit uncounted throngs I see 
Who to thy grave shall wend their pilgrim’s way 
From East and West. Where thy quiet word did sway, 
Full many a heart to run new life was stirred ; 

Winged with the message of the living word, 

Thy speech not traceless passed from earth away. 

And now, while rests thy clay in coffin cold, 

Thy spirit soars aloft on radiant wings, 

Joyful, while here the bitter tear is rolled ; 

To thee the Saviour, whom thy hymn did praise, 

Holds forth the palm of peace, which thou shall bear 
In endless triumph, free from toil and care ! ” 1 

1 “ 1 Heut ist ein Held in Israel gefallen ! ’ 

So tont es laut bei Deines Todes Kunde, 

Und Tausende vom weiten Erdenrunde 
Seh ich im Geist zu Deinem Grabe wallen. 

“Wo Du Dein Wort erschiitternd liessest schallen, 

Da schlug fur Viele die Entscheidungsstunde ; 

Du standest auf des Lebenswortes Grunde , 

Drum konnt’ Dein Wort auch spurlos nicht verhallen ! 

“ Nun ruhest Du, o Held ! im Sarkophage, 

Indess Dein Geist sich jubelnd aufgeschwungen, 

Uns bleibt der Schmerz um Dich, die bange Klage ! 

“ Nun reicht Dein Heiland, den Du oft besungen, 

Dir droben an dem schonsten Jubeltage 
Die Friedenspalme, die Du hier errungen ! 


SUPPLEMENT. 


329 


But from his own hymn we gather consolation and 
strength : — 

“ High from the heights of the sky 
Radiant and smiling I see 
An eye like a mother’s mild eye ; 

And peace now is perfect to me ! 

“ Thunders in terror may roll, 

Troubles may swell like the sea, 

But Jehovah reigns in my soul ; 

And peace now is perfect to me ! 

u Weeping He numbers my tears, 

Helpless my Helper is He, 

Trembling He soothes all my fears ; 

And peace now is perfect to me ! 

u When through the darkness I wend, 

Where no glimpse of the glory may be, 

I know all in brightness will end ; 

And peace now is perfect to me ! ” 1 

1 “ Hoch aus den himmlischen Hohen 
Lachelt ein Auge so hehr ! 

Hast Du Dir’s lacheln gesehen, — 

Ruhe ! was willst Du mehr ? 

“ Ob sich ein Wetter entladet, 

Ob es zu Kampf geht und Wehr, — 

0, wenn Jehova Dir gnadet, 

Ruhe ! was willst Du mehr ? 

“ Weinst Du, Er zahlet die Thranen ; 

Klagst Du, Er gibt Dir Gehor ; . 

Elehst Du, Er stillet Dein Sehnen, — 

Ruhe ! was willst Du mehr 1 

“ Wird in verlassenen Standen 

Manchmal das Barren auch schwer,— 

Herrlich muss alles sich enden : 

Ruhe ! was willst Du mehr V 1 


X 


CHAPTER XTT. 


APPENDIX. 

Poem composed by Krummacher on the occasion of 
his leaving the University of Jena , referred to 
at page 79. 

S CARCE brightened the gable .morn’s earliest ray, 

When the student looked forth from his window to say : 
“ 0 Jena, dear Jena, ’tis o’er, I depart ! 

God knows with how heavy and aching a heart ! ” 

He spoke, and the water rushed into his eyes ; 

But the staircase resounds, and the passage, with cries — 

“ Come, brother, be off ; take your last bite and sup ; 

We must drink to the parting, though bitter the cup.” 

And fuller his chamber, and fuller the hall, 

And wilder the tumult, and louder the call ; 

One seizes the knapsack, another the staff, 

They rush down the stairs with a shout and a laugh. 

. And out on the market-place gathers the crowd, 

Like a storm in the forest their greetings are loud ; 

But gentle their eyes, for the farewell is near, 

And brightened full oft by the sheen of a tear. 

In close-arrayed column they march down the street, 

The pavement resounds to the tramp of their feet, 

And up to the clouds peals their chorus of song — 

One only is mute in the echoing throng. 


APPENDIX. 


331 


The windows fly back, and eyes tender and shy . 

Peep down through the flowers to watch them go by, 
And laughing salutes are waved up from below ; — 

One only ne’er raises his eyes as they go. 

And round the inn-door, when they gather in line, 

One only refuses the odorous wine, 

Until they have reached the last house they must pass, 
When at length, see ! he seizes and empties the glass, 

And hurls it far down in the torrent below, 

While the tears must gush forth in their hot, eager flow, 
As though his best treasure were sunk in the main : 

“ 0 Jena, to leave thee — how bitter the pain ! ” 1 


Sermon preached by Krummacher on New Year's Day 
1868 , eight days after the death of his wife. 

Psalm sxiii. 

So again, beloved dear friends, another new year 
has by the grace of God dawned upon us. May you 
spend it under a brighter and more cloudless sky than 
he who now addresses you, and who now celebrates 
along with you this brightest festival of joy of the whole 
Christian year, yet with sorrow and sadness of spirit, 
for the earthly sun of his home has set. On this New 
Year s morning I greet you with the salutation of love, 
and with the most earnest wish that you who are bound 
together with the bonds of affection may be spared to 
each other ; and with this my salutation of peace to 
you, I also return to you my heartiest thanks for the 
comforting and kindly sympathy you have so richly 
shown toward me in these the darkest days of my 

1 The above beautiful rendering of Krummacher’s student-song is from 
the pen of Miss Catherine Winkworth, author of “ Lyra Gercnanica,” &c. 
The Translator is indebted to her for her kindness in preparing it. 


332 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


life. I read of the patriarch Jacob, that he “ strength- 
ened himself, and -sat upon the bed .” 1 He did this, in 
the view of his own death, that he might bestow his 
farewell blessing on his sons. I regard this as more 
easily done in such a case than in the presence of a 
death wherein one has been snatched away from us 
who is more to us than the half of our own life. Yet, 
O my soul, go forward in duty, even though the waves 
of deep emotion swell in tumult within thee ! In this 
place something else is required of me than to bedew 
the congregation with my tears of grief. 

What a lovely harmony of sweet music has echoed 
forth from the psalm which I have just read ! It is a 
genuine New Year's psalm. Let us enter for a little 
into the region of its divine thoughts ! The psalter 
was the prayer-book of Him who is our only consola- 
tion in life and in death, so long as He, the Son of 
Man, sojourned on this earth. It is David , from whose 
heart, enlightened and moved by the Spirit of God, 
this psalm welled forth ; not David, the sunburnt 
shepherd-boy, amid his peaceful flocks of sheep and 
lambs, but the grey-haired old man amid the sorrows 
of life. He sang it when billows of affliction were 
rolling over his head. He realized as true the saying 
of the apostle, that “ no chastening for the present 
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.” The sun of 
consolation may not be altogether set, shrouding the 
heart of the believer in total darkness, but yet it may 
only shine upon him through a veil of dark clouds. 
J oyful confidence may not be for the time present with 
us yet — Oh, God is faithful ! 

David sang his song at a time when, after many 
conflicts and storms and trials, a period of rest, a 

1 Gen. xlviii. 2. 


APPENDIX. 


333 


time of quickening, was again granted to him. Then 
he sang it, looking back at what he had experienced, 
to the praise of Him who in all his misery had not 
neglected him, and to the comfort of all his fellow- 
pilgrims on the narrow way. The Lord will not for- 
sake them, as He had not forsaken him. We shall, in 
the course of our observations on this precious heart- 
effusion, simply consider the verses in succession. They 
are to me what the firmly-rooted stem, around which 
it twines, is to the ivy branch when the tempest 
blows. May they be helpful to you all in entering 
on and in passing through this new year in peace ! 

I. David begins : “ The Lord is my Shepherd.” It 
is astonishing to hear the Old- Testament man, who 
lived before the advent of Christ, designating the Lord 
of heaven and earth by this confiding name. But he 
does this not arbitrarily. He has already heard the 
sweet name from the mouth of the patriarchs, to whom 
the shepherd-fidelity of God had already so wonder- 
fully and in so many diverse ways revealed itself; he 
learned it from the inscrutable purpose of the love of 
God, the purpose to save man, which was so distinctly 
revealed to him ; yea, he learned it from his own personal 
life-experience. We naturally here think of Him who, 
with an undoubted reference to our psalm, testified, “ I 
am the good Shepherd,” and whom the spiritually- 
enlightened eye of David already saw, although it was 
afar off and but dimly. 0 blessed, blessed is he who can 
and dare in sincerity and truthfulness say with the royal 
singer, “ The Lord is my Shepherd ; ” and every one may 
dare to say this who has given himself over to Him as one 
of the sheep of His pasture, needing His care, and will- 
ing to be led by Him. Such an one may also add with 


334 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


the singer, “ I shall not want ” Alas, according to the 
feeling, there is often, often want ! And yet, whoever 
has Him as a Friend, a Friend who possesses all things, 
has also all that can serve to bring him peace. But so 
long as we wander here on earth, we will not be inde- 
pendent possessors of the heavenly good which is 
destined for us. We remain under the care of our 
faithful Shepherd, who will minister to us according to 
the measure of His own wisdom out of the fulness of 
our earthly inheritance. 

II. The psalmist continues, saying, “ He maketh me 
to lie down in green pastures : He leadeth me beside 
the still waters ” that is, in the cool shadows such as are 
afforded in the sunny land of the East by the foliage of 
the spreading trees which grow by the banks of the 
streams. David here praises the kindness of the good 
Shepherd in that He never suffers those who are the 
sheep of His pasture to be at all times exposed to 
privation and trial. No, He often grants to them for a 
longer or shorter time during their sorrowful and 
changeful pilgrimage through this earth, when the sun 
rises over them with a scorching heat — O how often 
did David experience this! — pauses, moments of rest 
and refreshment, when the exhausted, weary pilgrims 
may gather fresh strength, it may be for the most part 
only that they may be prepared to meet new trials and 
encounter new conflicts which are awaiting them ; for 
the word of prophecy cannot fail, that we must through 
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. I 
believe that such a resting-time is at present granted 
to all our people. Let every one see to it that he 
finds rest in God before the storm sweeps forth. Yes, 
let us open our hearts to the call of the apostle : “ Let 


APPENDIX. 


335 


us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we 
mayobtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 5 ’ 

III. The psalmist further adds, “ lie restoreth my 
soul” Yes, He suffers none of His to perish for ever, 
though their way may he rough and dark. He helps 
His people, at one time by bringing to their remembrance 
this or that word of consolation which He has spoken ; 
at another by presenting before them the animating ex- 
periences of some one of His saints, who has been in a 
situation similar to our own ; at another by sending to 
us a friend, who associates himself with us as a very 
messenger from God ; at another by discovering to us 
a love which had been before unknown ; at another by 
pouring into our heart a childlike, confiding spirit. How 
lovingly in all these ways does He lift us up, and bear 
us onward when we are faint and weary! “ He leadeth 
me in the paths of righteousness” Perhaps He does so 
not always in accordance with our own wishes and 
thoughts and purposes. Oh, He does so oftentimes in a 
manner quite opposed to them. How far, in a thousand 
instances, are His thoughts above our thoughts, and 
His ways above our ways ! But let us resign ourselves 
calmly and trustfully to His guidance. Never has any 
one sincerely trusted Him who has not been con- 
strained, at the end of his brief journey through this 
world, to acknowledge that the Lord has done all 
things well. He does this that to us and by us He 
might glorify His name — His name as the unchangeably 
True and Faithful One. How gloriously does this His 
name shine forth in the history of His servant David, 
where we see all the threads, strangely twisted and 
woven into the web of his life, at length in the end 
united in one harmonious and beautiful whole. 


336 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

IV. Yes, it is true there are scenes of difficulty and 
of danger, which all pilgrims must in their journey of 
life pass through, and, strange to say, the most difficult 
and the most dangerous are often reserved for the 
friends of God ! Our psalmist knows how to sing of 
these scenes. In the song before us he calls them 
“ The valley of the shadow of death.” Ah, how dark 
that valley was for a man living under the Old 
Covenant and under the ban of the law, when the 
promise was only feebly seen shining like a dim star 
in the far distance ; and yet, listen to what he says : 
“ Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death , I will fear no evil,” that is, I shall suffer no 
injury, and I shall not despond, “for ” — this is his 
confidence (not always alike strong, but never wholly 
wanting) — “ Thou ” (how his heart was cheered within 
him at the utterance of this word “ Thou !”) — “ Thou 
art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff” — he meant the 
shepherd’s staff — “ they comfort me.” The conscious- 
ness that I am even here under Thy protection and 
guidance fills me with peace. Oh, if he could thus speak, 
he who as yet knew not that the good Shepherd, on 
whose shoulders he leaned, must Himself go before 
him down into the dark valley to show him that 
there was a pathway thence which led into the region 
of unclouded light and glory ; how much more ought 
we who have seen the good Shepherd do all this, 
and have witnessed His actual triumph over death and 
the grave, and have listened to the words He spake to 
the sheep of His pasture : “ And if I go, I will come 
again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there 
ye may be also.” Yes, He can lead us in peace through 
the portals of death. He can cause the light of joy to 
break through the darkness of death, and separation 


APPENDIX. 


337 


from the friends we love to be lightened and cheered 
with heavenly hope. He can cause that, in that solemn 
hour when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dis- 
solving, the scenes of the heavenly world hover in 
beautiful vision before the soul ; yea, He even makes 
those who are dying become comforters to us instead 
of our being comforters to them. Oh, He can do great 
things for us in the dark valley of the shadow of death ! 
Fellowship with the good Shepherd fills with light and 
glory all the dark scenes of our life on earth. Who- 
ever is His need “ fear no evil 

V. Yes, He can do great things in behalf of those 
who are His, and He does them as often as there is 
need. If He so brightens the eye of your faith that 
you can look beyond that which is in part, and see 
that which is perfect beyond this valley of tears and 
of death, to that land where “the voice of weeping shall 
be no more heard, nor the voice of crying,” nor of 
sorrow for ever, and if He shows you the place He has 
there prepared for you beside those who are ever dear 
to you, then may you take up the jubilee song of the 
psalmist : “ Thou preparest a table” (a banquet) “ be- 
fore me in the presence of mine enemies ” — not mortal 
enemies alone. “ Thou anointest my head with oil ; 
my cup runneth over.” In any case they may confi- 
dently appropriate to themselves the words with which 
the psalm concludes : “ Surely goodness and mercy shall 
follow me all the days of my life.” Thus at all times 
may they say in faith — at the close of their life-course 
they will see that it has been so. Even in the bitterest 
cup it w dl be seen that love, love has been the chief in- 
gredient. And what shall we say of the last words of 
the psalm ? Oh, it is the bright and glorious centre in 


338 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

which all the rays of the precious song gather together 
into one ! “ I will dwell in the house of the Lord for 

every The house of the Lord ; that is, the invisible 
Church, which the apostle speaks of 1 as “ the household 
of God,” which binds together the heaven and the 
earth, which we recognise as the communion of saints, 
and which, perhaps, is often hid from view, but in days 
of trial and persecution, when here and there a member 
of that body whose Head is Christ endures suffering, 
it comes forth to view from behind the concealing veil 
with the whole power of its consolation and sympathy 
of love. In this spiritual house, which stands firm and 
immovable whatever on earth may perish, we dwell 
for ever, and we dwell together — ye who are there in 
the upper part of the house triumphing in your glorious 
victory, and we, so long as it shall please God, here in 
the lower part of the house of God in the Church, where 
we still war with our foes, and yet together gathered 
around the one heavenly Friend who is our all. 

Oh, with what tender affectionate care has the good 
Shepherd provided for the alleviation of all our sorrows, 
and the supply of all our wants ! With what super- 
abundant fulness has He laid up for us the blessings of 
peace ! Truly, nowhere can we be better than when 
we are with Him. Let us then join ourselves in 
covenant to Him for our new year’s journey, and the 
longer the more closely and the more affectionately ; 
and may He raise us always nearer and nearer to the 
light in which the great apostles stood, who had 
no consciousness of condemnation resting on them, 
because of the blood which had been shed for them; no 
consciousness of death, since He who was the Life had 
appeared ; no consciousness of danger from the commo- 

1 Eplies. ii. 19. 


APPENDIX. 


339 


tions and changes of this world, because they belonged 
to a kingdom that was immovable ; no consciousness 
even of any separation by death from those they 
loved. Their conversation was, as they themselves all 
testify, in heaven ; and this was their watchword, and 
it is also ours for the pilgrimage-journey of this new 
year : — 

“ Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and 
for ever^” Amen. 

0 thou Shepherd of Israel, who leadest Joseph like 
a flock, we renew with Thee our covenant consecration. 
Seal it, and abide , abide with us ; and when it is even- 
ing, and our day draws to a close, be Thou the Light 
which shines upon us, till we shall see Thee there with 
unclouded joy, face to face, amid the everlasting light 
of glory ! Amen. 


The last Sermon preached by Krummacher. 
15 th November 1868. 

The hymn was first sung : — 

“ Heavenward doth our journey tend, 

We are strangers here on earth : 

Through the wilderness we wend 
To the Canaan of our birth. 

Here we roam a pilgrim band, 

Yonder is our Father-land !” 1 

1 “ Himmelan geht unsre Valin, 

Wir sind Gaste nur auf Erden, 

Bis wir dort in Canaan 

Durch die Wiiste kommen werden. 

Hier ist unser Pilgrimstand, 

Droben unser Vaterland.” 


340 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

u Brethren , he followers together of me , and mark them which 
walk so, as ye have us for an ensample . ( For many walk , of 
whom I have told you often , and now tell you even weeping , that 
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruc- 
tion, whose god is their belly , and whose glory is in their shame , 
who mind earthly things.') For our conversation is in heaven ; 
from whence also we look for the Saviour , the Lord Jesus 
Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
like unto His glorious body , according to the working whereby 
He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” — Pliilip- 
pians iii. 17-21. 

Beloved, what a statement have we here ! And 
these are not the words of a saint, but of a sinful son 
of Adam, a pilgrim on earth like ourselves ! We, too, 
may give expression to them, in so far as we are Chris- 
tians as well as the apostle. — In what respect was he a 
Christian ? The text furnishes us with an instructive 
insight — 

1. Into the personal conviction of the apostle. 

2. Into the apostle’s heart. 

3. Into his blessed prospects while here on earth. 

Let us consider these things, and may the Lord 
guide our meditations ! 

I. The apostle begins : “ Brethren, be followers to- 
gether of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye 
have us ” — that is, me and my companions in the faith, 
James, Peter, and John, and the rest of the apostles — 
“ for an ensample !” Not only to his Philippians, but 
also to us, yea, to all the world, he cries with great 
confidence: “ Walk ye in my footsteps!” That is 
strong language, that is bold for you, Paul, who openly 
acknowledged yourself as the chief among sinners, and 
whom we hear frankly confessing : “ I know that in 
me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” 


APPENDIX. 


341 


And do you then place yourself before us as an en- 
sample ? Do you forget these words of your Master : 
“ Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased ; and 
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted?” Oh, 
no, he has not forgotten them. He understands them 
well. He is very far from holding before us his own 
personal holiness — of such, indeed, he knows nothing 
— as a pattern. As the perfect pattern of a life, well- 
pleasing in the sight of God, he knows only One, and ye 
also know who He is. His call to us : “ Be followers 
together of me,” has relation only to the way in which 
he walked, the way of a living faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the only mediator between God and man. He 
asks no more with Pilate, “ What is truth ?” nor with 
Nicodemus, “ What must I do to be saved ?” He has 
the truth, and he knows how salvation is to be obtained. 
And that the way on which he walks alone leads to 
eternal happiness, he is so firmly convinced, that to all 
who miss this way, though it were the whole world 
besides, he urgently calls : “ Be followers of me,” testi- 
fying that every other path leads only to everlasting 
destruction. Such was the strong conviction of the 
truth by which the apostle was animated. 

Whom had he, in the language of our text, in view as 
a warning example of error ? Perhaps it may be said, 
that in Christendom at least such a race as this is 
seldom to be met with. But do not trust appearances. 
There are even in this day in which we live multitudes 
that may so be represented, and we meet them wher- 
ever we turn. He styles them “ enemies of the cross: 
whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their 
shame, who mind earthly things.” Serious charges ! 
yet of millions of our contemporaries may such things 
be justly said. We almost everywhere breathe the air 


342 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

of a world regardless of all higher interests. What we 
call Idealism has passed away from the life of both old 
and young. The wonder which God wrought amongst 
us two years ago , 1 has not called forth as yet a single 
poem of true inspiration. The long hoped for “ united 
Germany ” was hailed in its cradle by no such genuine 
hymns of enthusiasm as those which were poured forth 
at the time of our Liberation, in the years 1813 - 14 . 
The most earnest eagerness and care of men are only 
now engaged about the things of this life. The great 
concern now is about what they shall eat, and what 
they shall drink, and about gold and silver, as the 
means of obtaining sensual indulgences. Materialism 
holds sway amongst us. There are no longer wanting 
those who seek their honour in those things which are 
a shame to them, not only in their unbelief and their 
unconcealed despising of religion and of the Church ; 
but, above all, in their haughty, frivolous contempt of 
all that is holy, their feasting and revelry, their sensual 
debauchery, especially the sin against the sixth com- 
mandment . 2 The world in our day swarms with 
“enemies of the cross of Christ.” What wonder? 
The cross, the centre of the Gospel, with its earnestness, 
its solemn calls to repentance, and its urging the neces- 
sity of seeking the deliverance of the immortal soul 
from the dominion of the flesh, comes into direct hos- 
tility to all the thoughts and actions of frivolous, 
earthly-minded men. Oh that at some favourable 
moment they could hear the words of the apostle with 
the ear of their hearts, uttered as with the thunder’s 
voice : “ Follow me /” 

1 Alluding to the war with Austria, in Bohemia. — T r. 

2 In Luther’s Catechism the sixth commandment is that which in the 
catechism of the Westminster divines is reckoned as the seventh, and 
Luther’s seventh commandment is their sixth. — T r. 


APPENDIX. 


343 


II. With what feelings does the apostle contemplate 
these enemies of the cross, who are also his own enemies ? 
We would naturally conclude that it could not but be 
with feelings of deep dismay, for he sees them hastening 
straight onward on the way to destruction, we might 
even have expected that he would look on them with a 
heart burning with hatred against them ; but our text 
shows us that it was otherwise with him. The old 
hereditary nature, when a man is brought into the 
fellowship of Christ, and under the influence of the 
Spirit of Christ, gives place to another- — old things are 
passed away, all things are become new in his heart as 
well as in his conviction . Hear what he says : — “ I 
tell you now, even weeping , that they are the enemies 
of the cross of Christ.” Why with weeping ? It was 
not on his own account. That could not be. All 
injuries that are done to him personally he can well 
bear. But so certain is it to him that he is walking in 
the only right way of salvation, and so firm is the con- 
viction in his mind, as we perceive, that the end of that 
path, in which they who wilfully miss this way are 
walking, is “ destruction,” — that the purpose of the 
divine compassion as regards them is in vain, and that 
for them the Saviour has shed His blood in vain, and 
that they who turn away from heaven s opened gates, 
if they do not repent and are converted, will go down 
to eternal ruin — it is that thought which goes down so 
deeply into his heart, and fills him with tears of bitter 
sorrow. These tears of Paul, which mingle themselves 
with the tears of his Master over Jerusalem, ought to 
touch the heart of every one who is yet walking at a 
distance from Jesus. More eloquent than the most 
eloquent words, these tears urge the sinner to repent- 
ance without delay ! “ But were all those for whom 


344 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 

the apostle wept so near to him, that even though un- 
converted, they were his brethren and sisters V’ Yes, 
they were so near to him, according to the new nature 
of which he had become a partaker ; for something of 
the love which dwelt in the Saviour now animated his 
soul. May then his tears also serve for a pattern, and 
teach a lesson to those who think that they already 
walk in the faith ! Let them take heed that they do 
not heartlessly judge those who are alienated from the 
faith, nor look upon them with haughty pharisaic 
contempt, but rather that in silence they mourn over 
their folly, and pray to God for their salvation. Oh 
the noble heart of Paul, may it beat also within our 
bosoms ! It is the surest and the fairest evidence of 
true, living Christian faith. 

III. Paul was no dreamer who revelled in sweet 
fancies. He had a clear spirit. He was a man of fact, 
who, far from manifesting any aversion to the sober 
realities of daily life, or spending his time in chosen 
retirement only in the contemplation of the visions ol 
the future, rather as one who walked in the light of 
day, lived with all his influence in the midst of his con- 
temporaries, and could say with reference to the many 
pretended or genuine fellow-labourers in the same 
great cause, “ I laboured more abundantly than they 
all.” And what had he not to endure in this labour 
and service of love to the brethren ! How fiercely the 
storms of earth assailed him ! And yet, where in this 
valley of tears do we meet with a happier man than 
he whom we hear uttering this joyful testimony here 
recorded, from amid his toilsome daily work, and from 
amid the thousandfold afflictions which he had to 
encounter in this thankless, hard, rebellious world ! 


APPENDIX. 


345 


While here below, day after day zeal for his Lord, 
and a desire to promote the happiness of man, con- 
sumed him; and that he might be troublesome to no 
one, he earned for himself his daily bread by the labour 
of his hands by night. Like the lark ascending from 
the furrow of the field, his soul rose up above the dark- 
ness and the oppressions of earth into the purer regions 
above, where all the most attractive ideals were realized. 
Hear his words ! In his own name, and in that of all 
his companions on the way of salvation, he says, “ Our 
conversation” — literally, our citizenship, our home-life — 
“is in heaven.” He mingles in spirit with the redeemed 
above. There he associates with the patriarchs, the 
prophets, and the apostles, wearing the unfading crown. 
He greets again, as eternally living, those whom he 
loved on earth, and beside whose graves here below he 
may have stood and wept. And who is in their midst ? 
He is there in His glory who bought them with His 
precious blood. All are united in the purest love into 
oneness with Him. There is no longer any discord ! 
all is harmony. There is no longer that which is in 
part; that which is perfect has come. No longer are 
there any secrets concealed ; all is unveiled, and they 
see face to face. Oh what a precious inheritance — this 
firm conviction, this heart filled with the love of 
Christ, and this happy and blessed prospect on this 
side of eternity — of which the apostle here boasts ! 
(The conclusion of the sermon is wanting in the manu- 
script.) 

The service on the occasion was concluded by singing 
the hymn — 

“ Now my native home I find 

Ferried o’er Death’s gloomy river ; 

Chains no more my soul may bind, 

Y 


346 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR KRUMMACHER. 


Triumphing with Christ for ever ! 
Jesus leads the way, and I 
Follow where He leads with joy. 

“ On to Heaven, on to Heaven, 

This my watchword be for ever ! 
Joy in God and taste of Heaven 
Shall from all deceit deliver ; 
Onward let me mount till I 
Meet my Saviour in the sky .” 1 

1 “ Himmelan wird mich der Tod 
In die rechte Heimath fiihren, 

Da ich iiber alle Noth 
Ewig werde triumphiren ! 

Jesus geht mir selbst voran, 

Dass ich freudig folgen kann. 

“ Himmelan, ach himmelan ! 

Das soil meine Losung bleihen. 

Ich will alien eitlen "Wahn 
Durch die Himmelslust vertreiben ; 
Himmelan steht nur mein Sinn, 

Bis ich in dem Himmel bin !” 


INDEX 


Address by Krummacher at Evangelical 
Alliance in Berlin in 1857, 272. 

Agenda controversy, 136-40 ; forced on 
the Rhenish Church, 171, 172. 

Ahlefeld, Countess, her “evening par- 
ties,” 245. 

Anhalt- Bernburg, Krummacher at, 34 ; 
attends the Gymnasium, 35 ; revival 
of religion in, 45-47. 

Arnim, Baroness Achim von, 88 ; 
Blumberg, Count, 238. 

Auberlen, Professor, 302. 

Baerl, account of, 121,122. 

Bahr, the theologian, 31. 

Ball, Hermann, 157. 

Barmen, Krummacher settles at, 124 ; 
its ecclesiastical activity, 130; pas- 
toral experiences in, 141-144; cleri- 
cal co-operation, 150, 151. 

Barth, Christian, 204. 

Beghards, account of the, 145. 

Believers, priesthood of all true, 161. 

Bengel, Albert, note, 201. 

Berg, Professor Dr, of Duisburg, 13. 

Berg, character of the people of, 126. 

Berlin, Krummacher settles in, 225 ; 
entrance on pastoral duties, 227 ; 
small number of church-goers in, 
228; preachers in, 232-235; religi- 
ous life in, 237 ; social life in, 240- 
248 ; the revolutionary outbreak in 
1848, 256-263. 

Bernburg, description of, 35. 

Bottiger, the archgeologist, 43. 

Bremen, Krummacher visits his parents 
at, 199. 

Brentano, Clemens, 88. 

Brethren of the common life, 145. 

Burger, Elise, 89. 

Burschenschaft, the, 65. 

Cabbalists, the, 87. 

Christian life in the Wupperthal, 127- 
144. 

Christianity, revival of, in Germany, 
44, 45. 


Church of the Lower Rhine, the, 220. 

Church government in Prussia, 169, 
170. 

Churches, Protestant, of Germany, 96. 

“ Circular correspondence,” Krumma- 
cher’s, with his brothers, 296-319. 

Collenbuschians, the, 123. 

Commemoration of the 100th birth- 
day of Krummacher’s father, 321. 

Confessional controversy, the, 223. 

Cornelius, Peter von, 89, 90. 

Costa, Da, and Cappadose, 147. 

Dannecker, Johann Heinrich, 200, 207. 

Darbyites, the, 212. 

Deists, the works of English, 182. 

Denkglaubigkeit, 235. 

Diedrich, “old,” 195. 

Dieffenbach, Professor, 39. 

Doring, Carl August, 158. 

Duisburg, Krummacher’s childhood at, 
13 ; his school life at, 18 ; university 
of, 19. 

Dutch Church divided into “Old ” and 
“New Light,” 147 ; sermons, 149. 

Ebrard, Professor, 302. 

Eckard, Master, 90. 

Eichhorn, J. Gottfried, 68. 

Eichhorn, minister of public worship, 
his “saloon,” 240-242. 

Elberfeld, Krummacher’s second call 
to, 152 ; his associates in the ministry 
at, 155-157 ; the Crown-Prince’s visit 
to, 193, 194 ; Reformed congregation 
at, 195. 

Eisner, Samuel, 237. 

Engels, Christiane, 19 ; Krummacher’s 
poem to, 20, 21 ; her influence over 
Krummacher, 31. 

Engels, Pastor, 25. 

English Deists, the works of, 182. 

Essler, Pastor of Capelin, 12. 

European universities, organization of, 
58. 

Evangelical Alliance, first meeting of, 
268 ; Krummacher’s address to, at 


348 


INDEX. 


Berlin, 272-288 ; meeting at Geneva, 
288 ; notable members of, 291, 292. 

“Evening parties,” Twesten’s, 243;’ 
Countess Ahlefeld’s, 245. 

Fatherland, deliverance of the, 44. 

Franke, Dr, of Rostock, 60. 

Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, Krammacher 
settles at, 84 ; description of, 85-86 ; 
its society, 87-90 ; its “Museum,” 
91, 92 ; its preachers, 94, 95 ; its 
Reformed churches and pastors, 96- 
107. 

Frederick the Great, note , 120, 

Frederick William iv., 175, 261, 262 ; 
letters from, to Krammacher, 268- 
270 ; Krummacher ’s opinion of, 298. 

Free Church colony of Kornthal, 205. 

French domination in Prussia, 19 ; 
Reformed congregation of Frankfurt, 
98. 

Friedrich, Pastor, his eloquence, 95. 

Gabler, John Philip, 67-69. 

Gemarke, described by Goethe, 133. 

German universities, organization and 
statistics of, note, 50. 

Germany, political condition of, 9-12 ; 
old student-life of, 60-62 ; Protestant 
churches of, 96 ; infidelity in its 
modern development introduced into, 
note , 181. 

Gichtelians, the, note, 212. 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgan von, 76 ; his 
notice of Krummacher at Gemarke, 
133. 

Gontgen, Dr, 90, 91. 

Graber, Dr, 130. 

Griesbach, Professor, note, 68. 

Grimm, Professor, 14. 

Gunther, Friedrich, the physician, 14, 


Hadermann, counsellor of education, 
89. 

Halle, university of, 48-59 ; student- 
life at, 60-63. 

Hamann, J. G., the “ magus of the 
North,” 100. 

Hanse Towns, note, 199. 

Hasenkamp’s letter to Lavater, 16 ; 
note, 123. 

Hebei, the poet, 210. 

Heidelberg Catechism, the, 126. 

Hengstenberg, Dr, notes, 246, 247. 

Hermann, Reinhard, 157. 

Heydt, Frau von der, 195. 

Hofacker, Ludwig, 207. 

Hoffman, court-preacher, 38, 303, 309. 

Holland, Ivrummacher’s visit to, 145- 
150. 


Hufnagel, Senior, 94. 

Hiilsmann, Wilhelm, 158. 

Immermann, Carl, 61. 

Infidelity, modem, introduced into 
Germany, note, 181, 182. 

Influences moulding character, 30-33. 

Inner Mission, the, 43, 264. 

Jena, university of, founded, 64; de- 
scription of, 65 ; Krammacher’s resi- 
dence at, 64-74 ; student-life at, 75 ; 
poem written by Krammacher on 
leaving, 79, 330. 

Jung-Stilling, the mystic, 127. 

Krummacher, Adolph Heinrich, 16. 

Krummacher, Emil, 78, 121, 122. 

Krummacher, Friedrich Adolf, his 
diary of his son’s progress, 11 ; 
his friendships, 12 ; settles in Kett- 
wig, 23 ; experiences as a pastor, 
26 ; opinion of the peasantry, 27 ; 
his sermons, 29 ; intercourse with 
the humbler classes, 30 ; appointed 
superintendent of Anhalt-Bernburg, 
34. 

Krammacher, Friedrich Wilhelm, his 
remembrances of childhood, 9 ; his 
birth-place, 10 ; his father, 11 ; 
child -life at Duisburg, 13 ; entrance 
on school-life, 15 ; early Christian 
training, 16 ; poem to Christiane 
Engels, 20, 21 ; school -life at Kett- 
wig, 23-26 ; his uncle Gottfried, 25 ; 
his brother Emil, 32 ; first religious 
impressions, 32, 33 ; leaves Kettwig, 
34 ; student-life at Bernburg, 36 ; 
joins the Landsturm to aid in the 
liberation of the Fatherland, 38 ; 
mode of life and study, 43 ; religious 
teaching, 45, 46 ; joins the university 
of Halle, 48 ; his rationalistic pro- 
fessors, 51-54 ; enters the university 
of Jena, 64; enrols in the “Ger- 
man Burschenschaft,” 65 ; choice of 
teachers, 67 ; private studies, 77 ; 
returns home, 81 ; passes his final 
examination, 82, 83 ; appointed 

assistant-preacher at Frankfurt, 83 ; 
friendships there, 86 ; his first .ser- 
mons, 106, 107 ; leaves for Ruhrort, 
108 ; his marriage, 109 ; happiness 
there, 110 ; first-fruits of his minis- 
try, 113-117 ; attachment of his 
people, 119, 120, and of his friends, 
122, 123 ; accepts a charge at Bar- 
men, 124 ; reception into the Wup- 
perthal, 125 ; sermons on Elijah and 
Elisha, 133 ; Goethe’s notice of, 
134, 135 ; declines a call to Elber- 


INDEX. 


349 


feld, 136 ; pastoral experiences, 141- 
144 ; excursion into Holland, 145 ; 
fraternal relations with other 
churches, 150, 151 ; receives and 
accepts a second call to Elberfeld, 
152 ; his colleagues there, 155-158 ; 
preaches before the king, 175-193 ; 
visits Bremen, 196, where he preaches, 

197, and is involved in a controversy, 

198, 199 ; visits Wiirtemberg, 199 ; 
returns to the Wupperthal, 211 ; his 
guests, 215-217 ; declines a call to a 
professorship at Mercersburg, Penn- 
sylvania, 217 ; prosperity of his con- 
gregation, 222 ; the confessional con- 
troversy introduced, 223 ; called to 
Berlin, 224 ; his disappointments, 
225-229 ; increase of his congre- 
gation, 230 ; meetings with his 
brethren, 232-234 ; satisfaction with 
his sphere increases, 254 ; called as 
court-preacher to Potsdam, 269 ; his 
address to the Evangelical Alliance, 
272-288 ; his three questions to the 
Kirchentag, 290 ; his lectures and 
addresses, 294, 295 ; his works, 296 ; 
letters to his brothers and parents, 
297-322 ; death of his wife, 312; his 
death, 326. 

Krummacher, Gottfried Daniel, 25, 155. 

Keller, the family of, 25. 

Kempis, Thomas a, 113. 

Kerner, Justinius, 208, 209. 

Kettwig, the congregation of, 22 ; 
becomes Krummacher’s home, 23-34. 

Kilzer, Wilhelm, 87. 

Klaus, Pastor, 47. 

Klopstock, Professor, 14. 

Knapp, Albert, 202, 203. 

Knapp, “ der alte,” 55, 58. 

Kirchentag, meetings of the, 266, 267. 

Kirchner, Pastor, 95. 

Kohl, Albert, 156. 

Kohlbriigge, Dr, 213. 

Kornthal, Free Church colony of, 205. 

Kotzebue, Hofrath von, 74. 

Krall, Pastor, 128, 129. 

Krosigk, von, 38, 46. 

Lavater, Hasenkamp’s letter to, 16. 

Leipsic, battle of, 183. 

Liberation, the year of (1813), 37 ; the 
consequences of the war of, 93. 

Lindner, Professor, 43. 

Lines addressed by Krummacher to his 
wife on her birth-day (1848), 310. 

Lines written on the occasion of Krum- 
macher’s death, 328. 

Lix and the “ ecclesiola in ecclesia” at 
Frankfurt, 105, 106. 


Lollards, the, 145. 

Lower Rhine, the Church of the, 219, 

222 . 

Luden, the historian, 69. 

Lutheran view of the pastoral office, 
159. 

Manuel, Pastor, , his influence over 
Krummacher, 99, 100 ; his sermons, 
101 , 102 . 

Marezoll, the preacher, 77. 

Marheineke, of Berlin, 92, 225. 

Marx, Professor, 54, 55. 

Meister, of Bernburg, 43-45. 

Mendelssolin-Bartholdy, Felix, 98, 99. 

Menken, the antagonist of Grimm, 14, 
123. 

Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Krum- 
macher offered a professorship at, 
217. 

Meyer,. Johann Friedrick von, 103- 
105. 

Minnesingers, the, 200. 

Molitor, the philosopher, his system, 
note, 87. 

Moller, Professor, Krummacher’s uncle, 
12, 14, 41, 42. 

Museum, the, of Frankfurt, 91, 92. 

Napoleon at Bemburg in 1812, 36, 37. 

Natorp, of Potsdam, 42. 

Neander, Augustus, his motto, 78 ; 
sketch of, 249-252. 

Niemeyer, 42, 45, 50, 51. 

Nonne, the Gymnasium director, 15. 

Nourney, Pastor, 154. 

Oetinger, the, “magus of the South,” 
note , 123. 

“Old” and “New Light,” Dutch 
Church divided into, 147. 

Pastoral office, Lutheran view of the, 
159 ; Romish view of, 159 ; Rhenish 
evangelical view of, 162-168. 

Pastors of Frankfurt, 95. 

Pastoral theology, note , 78. 

Paulus, E. G., 210, 211. 

Plessing, the philosopher, 13 ; his 
death, 19. 

Plymouth Brethren, the, note, 212. 

Poem by Krummacher on leaving J ena, 
in German, 79 ; in English, 330. 

Prinsterer, Groen van, 147. 

Protestant Churches of Germany, divi- 
sions of, note, 96. 

Prussia, French domination in, 19 ; 
forms of Church government in, note, 
169. 

Quietism, note, 150,151. 


350 


INDEX. 


Rationalism of Niemeyer, 51 ; of Weg- 
scheider, 52 ; of Rohr and Gesenius, 
53 ; of Gahler, 68 ; of Paulus, 210, 
211 . 

Recke, Count von der, 20, 42. 

Reformed congregations at Frankfurt, 
96 ; at Elberfeld, 195. 

Reformers, the ministerial office as . 
conceived of by the, 165. 

Religious awakening in Germany, 44, 
45. 

Rhenish Churches, 160 ; their view of 
the pastoral office, 162-168. 

Ritter, Carl, the geographer, 92. 

Rolir, the expounder of rationalism, 53. 

Ross, pastor of Budberg, 12, 25. 

Rousseau, his infidelity, 181. 

Ruhrort, Krummaeher settles at, 108 ; 
attachment of the people to him, 
119, 120 ; the centre of many 

attractions, 122, 123. 

Sachse, Professor, 36. 

Sand, Carl Ludwig, his fanaticism, 73, 
74. 

Sander, Pastor, 125, 151 ; his letter to 
Krummaeher, 292. 

Schaff, Dr, letter from, 218. 

Schlegel, A. W., the poet, 39, 40. 

Schleiermacher, notice of his writings, 
note, 62, 63 ; his theological position, 
78 ; anecdote of, 141. 

Schneider, Dr, the widow of, 31 ; her 
daughters’ influence over Krum- 
macher, 32. 

Scholten, of Ruhrort, 113. 

Sermon preached by Krummaeher at 
Elberfeld on occasion of visit of 
Prince Frederick in 1833, 175 ; on 
New Year’s Day, 1868, 331 ; last, 
15th November 1868, 339. 

Spiess, Dr Christian, 12, 14, 42, 83, 
96, 97. 

Stahl, Julius, 241, 248. 

Starke, of Ballenstadt, 43. 


Steffens, Heinrich, 240. 

Stein, Pastor, 95, 96. 

Strauss, Friedrich, of Ronsdorf, 25,252- 
254. 

Student-life at Halle, description of, 
60, 61. 

Students’ clubs in Germany, 62. 

Stuttgart, 201. 

Suabian poets, 93; people characterised, 

200 . 

Supplement, 266. 

Tersteegen, Gerhard, 10; his “friends,” 
28 ; notice of his life, 111 ; influence 
of his writings, 112. 

Thibaut, of Heidelberg, 92. 

Thile, General von, 244, 245. 

Tholuck, Dr, note, 58. 

Thorwaldsen, Bertel, anecdote of, 93. 

Trinity Church, the congregation of, 
254. 

Twesten, August D. C., 241-243. 

Yischer, Peter, of Nurnberg, 207. 

Yogt, Professor Nicolaus, 88. 

Yoltaire, his infidelity, 181. 

Wandsbeck Messenger, the, 15, 77. 

War of Liberation, consequences of, 94. 

Wartburg Festival, account of the, 
71-75. 

Wegscheider, Dr, his rationalism, 51, 
52. 

Wette, De, his theory of religion, 58, 
59. 

Wichern, £>r, 264, 265. 

Wittenberg, university of, note , 48 ; 
meeting of the Kirchentag at, 267. 

Wickop, of Ruhrort, 115. 

Works published by Krummaeher, 296. 

Wupperthal, Christian life in the, 127, 
144 ; pastors respected in, 159; visi- 
tors to the, 215. 

Zion, the “ new,” note, 144. 




























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